A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card When To Exchange…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, 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 simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to look for, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
include a growing number of functions which your existing customers do not really want or need
include charges, constraints or costs to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already 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 When To Exchange
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank 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% forex costs, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone 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 said previously, 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, internationally).
Your bank account bank instantly validates 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, adds a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated invest notification through the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to occur (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking cash and the additional action. However that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make revenue from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card When To Exchange