A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Feedback…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which also helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary 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 for free or cheaper than the competitors
include more and more functions which your existing consumers don’t really desire or need
include constraints, fees or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Phase 3 …
is basic 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 Feedback
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said 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 bank account bank automatically verifies 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 upon the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated invest notification by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
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 (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily in recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional step. However that does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make income from our Necessary Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership fee likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Feedback