A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Exchange Rate On Currensea Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to request, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
add a growing number of functions which your existing clients do not actually need or desire
include costs, charges or constraints to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Exchange Rate On Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
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 charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely 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, globally).
Your bank account bank instantly validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated invest notice by means of the app, if you pick 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 diary, I decided to sprinkle 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:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to take place (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards assures huge savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the additional step. That does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Vital Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, full information can be discovered on our rates plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Exchange Rate On Currensea Card