A new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. How Do I Get A Replacement Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
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 just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to get, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or cheaper than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing consumers don’t truly need or desire
include charges, charges or constraints to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Do I Get A Replacement Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank immediately validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated spend notice through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any 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 shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion costs occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily recently a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking money and the extra action. But that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make profits from our Necessary Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete details can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. How Do I Get A Replacement Currensea Card