A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Customer Service…
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 basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, 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– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to look for, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, but the totally free 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 something well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
include more and more features which your existing clients do not truly need or desire
add constraints, charges or fees to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Customer Service
It is a free direct debit card to use 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 company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really simple procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank immediately validates that you have adequate cash 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 totally free card, adds a 0.5% cost. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I decided to splash out and buy 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:.
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 different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea assures huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of cash and the additional step. That does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly 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 Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make income from our Important Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our strategies, full information can be found on our rates strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Customer Service