A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Can You Use The Currensea Card Online…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which also helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary 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 for free or cheaper than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing customers do not really desire or require
include charges, charges or constraints to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use The Currensea Card Online
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn 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 costs, then you do not require a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely easy procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank instantly confirms that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notification by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose 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:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost to happen (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I think the best bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking cash and the extra action. That does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, 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 small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make earnings from our Important Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Can You Use The Currensea Card Online