A new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. Why Should I Use A Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– just without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the totally free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competition
include a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t really require or want
add charges, fees or restrictions to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Why Should I Use A Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no fees and only 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 anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really 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 instantly confirms that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend alert through the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
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 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking money and the additional action. However that does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation 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 small FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make income from our Vital Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free amount on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Why Should I Use A Currensea Card