A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Europe…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, but the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competitors
add a growing number of functions which your existing clients do not actually need or desire
add charges, charges or restrictions to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already 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 Europe
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex charges, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank automatically validates that you have adequate 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. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic invest notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and purchase 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 couple of days later on:.
However transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is practically to take place (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea guarantees huge 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 invest money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the extra action. However that does not indicate 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make revenue from our Essential 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 complimentary amount on all our strategies, full information can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Europe