A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Holder Name…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– simply without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing customers don’t actually desire or require
include limitations, charges or costs to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently 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 Holder Name
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely simple process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank immediately verifies that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
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.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is just about to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea assures huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the finest bit might 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 current account with less fret about lacking money and the extra action. That does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make profits from our Important Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free amount on all our plans, full information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Holder Name