A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Rent A Car With Currensea Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-cost way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, however the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing consumers do not actually require or want
add restrictions, fees or charges to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Rent A Car With Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges 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 company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank immediately verifies that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% cost. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest alert via the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash 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:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards assures big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this means is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the additional action. But that does not suggest it is best.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Vital Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our rates plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Rent A Car With Currensea Card