A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Authorisation Paypal Checkout…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (using you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, 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 regular debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
add more and more features which your existing clients don’t actually require or want
add fees, charges or restrictions to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is basic 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? Currensea Card Authorisation Paypal Checkout
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 small 0.5% fee.
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 credit card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a little 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 cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank instantly confirms that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% fee. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea guarantees huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the extra step. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time 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 charged to you. Currensea Card Authorisation Paypal Checkout