A brand-new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Iban Currensea Card…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-cost method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to make an application for, which also assists.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more functions which your existing clients don’t truly need or want
add constraints, charges or fees to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy 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? Iban Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX costs are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a really basic procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank immediately verifies that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the complimentary card. There are no charges if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notice through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
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 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
But transforming 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 charges happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking money and the additional step. But that does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make revenue from our Vital Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Iban Currensea Card