A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Upgrade…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to make an application for, which also assists.
There are also some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing customers don’t actually need or desire
include restrictions, charges or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Upgrade
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially 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 specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very simple 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 current account bank instantly verifies that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic invest notification through the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
But converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is practically to happen (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises huge cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of money and the extra step. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
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, permitting us to make profits from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free amount on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Upgrade