A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Withdrawal Fee…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you choose a paid plan, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
include a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t really need or want
add limitations, charges or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 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 Withdrawal Fee
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make 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 charges, then you do not need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any fees and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item 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 money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically confirms that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, adds a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notification through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any 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 shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully recently a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and a great app.
However I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the extra step. But that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make income 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 amount on all our plans, complete details can be discovered on our prices plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time 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 Withdrawal Fee