A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Rent A Car With Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (using you an affordable method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
include more and more features which your existing consumers do not really want or need
add fees, limitations or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple 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? Rent A Car With Currensea Card
It is a complimentary 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 do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated 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 adequate money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal 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. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated spend notice by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose 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:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to take place (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards promises huge savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of money and the extra action. That does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make earnings from our Necessary Plan whilst staying more affordable 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 plans, full details can be found on our pricing plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Rent A Car With Currensea Card