A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Singapore Airlines…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– just without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to get, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary 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 something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing customers do not actually want or need
add constraints, charges or charges to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy 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 Singapore Airlines
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges 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 using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a really simple procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank immediately verifies that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The money 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 shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea promises big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I believe 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 money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. However that does not mean it is ideal.
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 small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make income from our Vital Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Singapore Airlines