A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Use Currensea To Pay Credit Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you a low-priced way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your current account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, however the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
include increasingly more functions which your existing clients don’t really need or desire
add constraints, charges or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is easy 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? Use Currensea To Pay Credit Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges 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 affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly 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 small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very easy 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 current account bank immediately validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic invest notification by means of the app, if you select 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 journal, I decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
However converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
However I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of cash and the additional action. That does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete details can be found on our prices strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Use Currensea To Pay Credit Card