A brand-new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. How To Get A Currensea Visa Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend 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 in between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– just without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing consumers do not truly desire or require
add constraints, charges or charges to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Get A Currensea Visa Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges 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 affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very simple procedure. You use 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 confirms that you have adequate 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, includes a 0.5% charge. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is practically to take place (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures huge savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the best bit may 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 current account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra action. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Get A Currensea Visa Card