A new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. How Much Cash Can I Withdraw On My Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (using you an inexpensive way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to request, which likewise assists.
There are also some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
add more and more functions which your existing clients do not actually want or require
include costs, charges or constraints to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Much Cash Can I Withdraw On My Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very simple procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank immediately validates that you have sufficient money 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 totally free card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend alert by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of money and the extra action. But that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Important Plan whilst remaining 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, complete information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. How Much Cash Can I Withdraw On My Currensea Card