A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Junior Card Design…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is totally free to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, however the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
add a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t really desire or require
add fees, charges or constraints to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Junior Card Design
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic procedure. You use 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 immediately confirms 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 on the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the complimentary card. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice via the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional step. However that does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make revenue from our Vital Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual membership charge 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.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Junior Card Design