A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Can You Rent A Car With Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you a low-cost method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
include a growing number of functions which your existing clients do not truly want or require
add charges, charges or constraints to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Rent A Car With Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing current 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 want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX costs are scarce. 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 potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a really basic procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately verifies that you have enough cash 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% cost if you have the complimentary card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 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:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea promises big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional step. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Important Plan whilst staying more affordable 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 strategies, full details can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Can You Rent A Car With Currensea Card