A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Can I Cancel My Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (using you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to look for, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more functions which your existing clients do not actually require or want
add costs, limitations or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple 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? Can I Cancel My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic process. 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 immediately verifies that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal 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 costs.
You get an automatic invest notice through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
But converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is just about to occur (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the extra action. However that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make income from our Essential Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Can I Cancel My Currensea Card