A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. How To Add Your Currensea Card To Your Wallet…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you a low-cost way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which likewise assists.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing customers don’t actually require or want
add charges, costs or limitations to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Add Your Currensea Card To Your Wallet
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% charge.
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 charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very simple process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notification by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any 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 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily over the last few years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of money and the extra step. That does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, 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 nominal FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Add Your Currensea Card To Your Wallet