A brand-new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Brasil…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable method 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 simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which also assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
include a growing number of functions which your existing customers do not truly want or require
add restrictions, charges or costs to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already 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 Brasil
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (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 don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very easy 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 instantly verifies that you have adequate 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. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated spend alert via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is practically to take place (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea promises huge 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 implies is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking cash and the additional step. But that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the awful 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 Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make earnings from our Important Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Brasil