A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Is Currensea Card Protected…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to make an application for, 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 company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
include increasingly more functions which your existing customers do not truly require or want
include restrictions, charges or fees to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is Currensea Card Protected
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn 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 fees, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely easy procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank automatically confirms 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 on the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the complimentary card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, 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 couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea assures big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: links 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 cash and the additional action. That does not imply it is best.
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 Vital Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, full details can be discovered on our prices plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Is Currensea Card Protected