A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Usd Card…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which likewise helps.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, however the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
add more and more features which your existing customers don’t really require or desire
add costs, charges or restrictions to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Phase 3 …
is easy 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 Usd Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 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 charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer 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 credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very 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, internationally).
Your bank account bank automatically validates that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the complimentary card. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert through the app, if you pick 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 buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to happen (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I believe the finest bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of money and the additional action. That does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free amount on all our plans, complete information can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Usd Card