A new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Offers…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which likewise assists.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing consumers don’t truly require or want
add charges, constraints or charges to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Offers
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely simple procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank instantly confirms that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% cost. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion fees happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the additional action. However that does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make revenue from our Essential Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, full details can be found on our prices strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Offers