A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. How To See Your Currensea Card Number…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-priced 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 bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competitors
add more and more functions which your existing customers do not actually require or want
add charges, fees or constraints to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 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 discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To See Your Currensea Card Number
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (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 costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and just a very little 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 requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely simple procedure. You use 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 validates that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic invest alert through the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to happen (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea assures huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However 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 invest cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking money and the additional action. However that does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Vital Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full details can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. How To See Your Currensea Card Number