A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. How Do I Know If My Currensea Card Is Ordered…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (using you an affordable way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to look for, which likewise helps.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, however the free plan works fine. You can apply 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 less expensive than the competition
add increasingly more features which your existing consumers don’t truly need or desire
include charges, restrictions or costs to the function that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Do I Know If My Currensea Card Is Ordered
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish 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.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any fees and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really simple process. You use 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 instantly validates 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. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to take place (often in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea promises big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I believe the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking money and the additional step. However that does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Necessary Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our strategies, full information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest 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 Know If My Currensea Card Is Ordered