A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Is Currensea Card Safe…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– simply without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
add a growing number of functions which your existing consumers do not truly want or need
include charges, charges or restrictions to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is Currensea Card Safe
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really simple procedure. 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 automatically confirms that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, 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 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately in recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking cash and the additional step. 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 choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make income from our Vital Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full details can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Is Currensea Card Safe