A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Declined But Money In Account…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-priced method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic 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 just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid plan, but the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
add more and more functions which your existing clients don’t truly require or want
include limitations, charges or costs to the function that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Declined But Money In Account
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn 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% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very easy process. 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 current account bank immediately validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% fee. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend alert by means of the app, if you select 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 chose to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
But transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to occur (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. But that does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make profits from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, full details can be found on our pricing strategies.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Declined But Money In Account