A new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. Currensea Pride Card…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to request, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, however the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or less expensive than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing consumers do not truly require or desire
include charges, limitations or fees to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Pride Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges 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 utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, 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 operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very easy 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 automatically confirms that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% fee. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost to occur (often in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea promises big savings (85%) and a terrific app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this means is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the additional step. 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 choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make profits 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 totally free quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our pricing strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Pride Card