A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Keeps Getting Declined…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-cost method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which also helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, however the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competition
include more and more functions which your existing customers don’t actually need or desire
add constraints, charges or fees to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Keeps Getting Declined
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, 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 operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank immediately confirms that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the totally free card, adds a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated spend notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I decided to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to happen (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea promises big savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I believe the best bit might 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 current account with less fret about running out of cash and the extra action. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Vital Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, complete details can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Keeps Getting Declined