A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Promotion…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which also assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
include more and more functions which your existing clients don’t actually need or want
include limitations, fees or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Promotion
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish 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 with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really basic process. You utilize 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 immediately verifies that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction 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 charges.
You get an automated invest notice by means of the app, if you pick 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 chose to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is just about to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. That does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make income from our Important Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our rates plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Promotion