A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Can You Use Currensea Card Without Verifying Your Identity…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the free strategy works fine. You can use 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 less expensive than the competition
include a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t really require or want
add fees, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use Currensea Card Without Verifying Your Identity
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly 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 want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank immediately verifies that you have adequate money 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, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notice via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no 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 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea assures big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I believe the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking cash and the extra action. That does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make earnings from our Necessary Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our rates plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Can You Use Currensea Card Without Verifying Your Identity