A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Contactless Phone…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
add more and more functions which your existing clients don’t really require or desire
include restrictions, costs or charges to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain 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 bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Contactless Phone
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish 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 complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really easy process. You utilize 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 immediately validates that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 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 couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is just about to happen (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards promises huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of money and the additional step. However that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Important Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our prices plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Card Contactless Phone