A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Email Address…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-priced method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
include a growing number of functions which your existing consumers don’t actually require or want
add charges, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Email Address
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
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% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, 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, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% charge. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notice by means of 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 diary, I decided to splash 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 few days later:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully recently a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards assures huge savings (85%) and a great app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of cash and the additional step. That does not mean 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 strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make income from our Essential Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Email Address