A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Emergency Number…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (using you a low-priced way to invest abroad) but 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 current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to look for, which also helps.
There are also some fascinating travel benefits if you choose a paid plan, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
add a growing number of features which your existing consumers do not really require or want
add constraints, charges or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Emergency Number
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn 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% forex costs, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated 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, globally).
Your current account bank instantly confirms that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notification by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and buy 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 on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional action. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Important Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Emergency Number