A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Why Is My Currensea Card Being Declined…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– simply without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to request, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a business 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 a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t actually require or want
include charges, fees or limitations to the function that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Why Is My Currensea Card Being Declined
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company 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 require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect 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 costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank immediately validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic invest notification by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and purchase 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 few days later:.
Converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional action. But that does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, full details can be discovered on our prices plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Why Is My Currensea Card Being Declined