A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Change Currency…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to look for, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or cheaper than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing clients don’t actually desire or require
add fees, charges or restrictions to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic 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? Currensea Card Change Currency
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 small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn 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% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which use 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 fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic 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 bank 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 free card, includes a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated spend notification via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards assures huge 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 checking account.
What this means is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of cash and the additional step. However that does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits 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 free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our prices strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Change Currency