A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Krisflyer…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-priced method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– just without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing clients do not truly want or require
include charges, charges or restrictions to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo 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 Krisflyer
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 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 complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, 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 operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank instantly validates that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated invest alert via the app, if you pick 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 journal, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to take place (often in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises huge savings (85%) and a great app.
But I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional step. That does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly 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 Essential Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make revenue from our Necessary 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 complimentary amount on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our rates plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Krisflyer