A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Confused With Vendors…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, 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 invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
include more and more features which your existing customers do not truly need or want
include costs, limitations or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve 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? Currensea Card Confused With Vendors
It is a 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% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial option 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 charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a simple, 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 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, globally).
Your bank account bank automatically confirms that you have enough money 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. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily recently a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises huge savings (85%) and a great app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this means is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of money and the extra step. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make revenue from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Confused With Vendors