A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Review 2017…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– simply without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to look for, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or cheaper than the competition
include a growing number of functions which your existing consumers don’t really desire or need
add limitations, fees or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 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 Review 2017
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
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% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, an extremely easy process. You utilize 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 immediately validates that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend alert via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 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 couple of days later:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is just about to happen (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the extra step. That does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, 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 Essential Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make income from our Important Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, full information can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Review 2017