A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. What To Do With Old Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing customers do not really want or require
include fees, limitations or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? What To Do With Old Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money 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 local currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank instantly verifies 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 totally free card, adds a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend alert by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost to take place (often in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately recently a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards guarantees big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking cash and the extra action. However that does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Essential Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. What To Do With Old Currensea Card