A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Europe…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You merely invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which likewise assists.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model 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 competition
include more and more functions which your existing customers don’t truly require or desire
include charges, fees or limitations to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Europe
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which provide rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees 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 with no fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic procedure. 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 current account bank automatically confirms that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated invest alert via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, 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:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is just about to occur (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in the last few years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards promises huge savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the extra action. That does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Europe