A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card For Daily Use…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to obtain, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
include increasingly more functions which your existing consumers do not truly require or want
include charges, constraints or fees to the function that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card For Daily Use
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
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 charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very 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, globally).
Your current account bank immediately verifies that you have adequate 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 complimentary card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up 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 burglary that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I think the best bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of money and the additional action. That does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make earnings from our Vital Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our pricing plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card For Daily Use