A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Won’t Link…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to look for, which also assists.
There are likewise some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or less expensive than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing consumers do not really need or desire
include charges, limitations or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Won’t Link
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire 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 save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really basic 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 validates that you have enough 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, adds a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic spend notification through the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of 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 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 just about to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards promises big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this suggests is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the extra action. That does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make revenue from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Won’t Link