A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Do You Need A Nin To Open A Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to make an application for, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
include more and more features which your existing customers do not actually need or want
add charges, constraints or fees to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Curve, monzo and revolut are currently in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Do You Need A Nin To Open A Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really easy process. You utilize 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 immediately confirms that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated spend notice via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
But transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea assures huge savings (85%) and a great app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking money and the extra step. That does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make income from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our plans, complete information can be found on our rates plans.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Do You Need A Nin To Open A Currensea Card