A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Review Currensea…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which also assists.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, however the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
add more and more features which your existing clients do not actually want or need
include limitations, costs or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy 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? Review Currensea
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any fees and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic procedure. You use 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 automatically verifies that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated invest notification through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is just about to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards assures huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking money and the additional action. However that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, 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 Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make earnings from our Essential Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Review Currensea