A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Will A Currensea Card Affect My Credit…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash 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 interesting travel advantages if you select 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 something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competition
add a growing number of functions which your existing consumers do not actually desire or need
add limitations, charges or charges to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Will A Currensea Card Affect My Credit
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline 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 don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely simple process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately verifies that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the complimentary card, adds a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notice by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle 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 few days later on:.
But converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to take place (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking money and the additional step. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Important Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our rates plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Will A Currensea Card Affect My Credit