A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. How Do You Top Up Your Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, 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 taken from your current account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to look for, which likewise assists.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or more affordable than the competition
add a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t really require or desire
add charges, limitations or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Do You Top Up Your Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which provide rewards and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very simple process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank immediately validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated spend notification by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to take place (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the extra action. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the awful 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make profits 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 plans, full information can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. How Do You Top Up Your Currensea Card