A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Direct Debit…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy 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 just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to get, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
include more and more features which your existing clients do not actually want or need
add limitations, charges or charges to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Direct Debit
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not require a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire 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 save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely simple procedure. You use 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 confirms that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the deal.
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% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated spend notification via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and buy 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 couple of days later:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to take place (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 anyway.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises big savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking cash and the extra action. However that does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review 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 Vital Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make profits 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 free quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our pricing plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Direct Debit