A new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. Currensea Top Up From Credit Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, however the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
include more and more functions which your existing consumers do not actually require or want
include charges, fees or constraints to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Top Up From Credit Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives 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 costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely basic process. 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 transaction.
The transaction 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 automatic spend notice via the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose 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 few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately recently a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards assures huge savings (85%) and a great app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the additional step. That does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free amount on all our plans, full details can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Top Up From Credit Card