A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Georgia…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which also assists.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a company 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
include a growing number of functions which your existing customers don’t really require or desire
include charges, limitations or fees to the function that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Georgia
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make 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 charges, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, 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, an extremely easy procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank immediately confirms 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 totally free card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notice by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any 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 reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea guarantees huge savings (85%) and a great app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of cash and the additional step. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make revenue from our Essential Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual subscription cost 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.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Georgia