A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Extra Card Fee…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid plan, but the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing customers don’t really want or require
add charges, charges or constraints to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is simple 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 Extra Card Fee
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, 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 operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, an extremely easy procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically confirms that you have adequate cash 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 totally free card, adds a 0.5% charge. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notice through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking cash and the extra action. But that does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation 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 Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make earnings from our Necessary Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free amount on all our plans, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Extra Card Fee