A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Apply Online…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, 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 merely invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid plan, but the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing clients don’t really want or need
include limitations, costs or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay 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? Currensea Card Apply Online
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very simple 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 bank account bank automatically verifies that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated spend notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
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 reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I think the best 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 current account with less stress over lacking money and the additional step. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the good, 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 small FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make earnings from our Important 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 amount on all our plans, full details can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Apply Online