A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Request Currensea Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-cost method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which also assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or more affordable than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing customers do not really need or want
include charges, charges or restrictions to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Request Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, 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 work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very simple process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically verifies 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. If you have the complimentary card, adds a 0.5% cost. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 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 few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea assures huge savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of money and the additional step. That does not mean it is best.
In this Currensea review is the great, 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 Essential Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make income from our Vital Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Request Currensea Card