A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Authorisation Request Pending…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-priced method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to get, which also assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
add increasingly more features which your existing clients don’t really require or want
add charges, charges or limitations to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Authorisation Request Pending
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees 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 impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really basic procedure. You utilize 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 validates that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction 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% charge. There are no charges if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notification by means of the app, if you select 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 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:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of money and the additional step. But that does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, 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 nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Authorisation Request Pending