A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Premium Card Currensea…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-priced way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, however the complimentary 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 free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
include more and more features which your existing consumers don’t actually want or need
add fees, charges or restrictions to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Phase 3 …
is easy 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? Premium Card Currensea
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee 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 conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very basic process. 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 bank account bank immediately validates that you have enough 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. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the complimentary card. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
But converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is practically to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking cash and the extra action. But that does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make income from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Premium Card Currensea