A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Reviews Uk…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to spend 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 current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing consumers do not actually need or want
add charges, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Reviews Uk
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
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 reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the complimentary card. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notification through the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Converting 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 different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of money and the extra action. However that does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make income from our Essential Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our rates plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Reviews Uk