A new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. What Is Currensea Card Good For…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (using you a low-priced way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– just without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which also assists.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, however the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or less expensive than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing clients do not actually want or require
add charges, limitations or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is simple 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? What Is Currensea Card Good For
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you do not need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial service 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 credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very easy 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 bank account bank immediately verifies that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
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% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notice via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any 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:.
But transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is just about to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I believe the finest 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 fret about running out of money and the additional action. But that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the awful 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make income from our Important Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, full information can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. What Is Currensea Card Good For