A new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. How To Cancel My Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, 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 just spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the 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 one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more features which your existing customers do not really want or require
add fees, constraints or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Stage 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? How To Cancel My Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make 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 desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which provide a partial solution 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 charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really easy process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank instantly validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic invest notification by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
However transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is just about to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I think the finest 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 bank account with less worry about lacking cash and the additional step. However that does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review is the good, 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 nominal FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make earnings from our Essential Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost also removes all FX markup on transactions.
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 won’t be charged to you. How To Cancel My Currensea Card