A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Rose Gold Card…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, 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 invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to request, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
add a growing number of features which your existing clients do not actually need or want
include charges, charges or constraints to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Rose Gold Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item 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 save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very simple process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
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, includes a 0.5% cost. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notice by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is practically to occur (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures huge savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the extra action. That does not suggest it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Necessary Plan whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our strategies, full information can be found on our rates plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Rose Gold Card