A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Top Up…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary plan 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 free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing customers don’t truly require or desire
add charges, limitations or costs to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure 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 bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Top Up
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really simple 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 current account bank immediately confirms that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% charge. There are no charges if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current 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 few days later:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway 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 assures big savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the additional step. However that does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make income from our Important Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Top Up