A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Track…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, 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 make an application for, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more features which your existing clients don’t really desire or need
add charges, constraints or costs to the function 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. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Track
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company 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 don’t need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely easy procedure. You use 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 confirms that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% cost. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no 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 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea promises huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional action. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
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 revenue from our Essential Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free amount on all our strategies, full information can be found on our rates strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Track