A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Is The Currensea Metal Card Worth It…
It has won a few 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 a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing clients don’t really desire or require
add charges, charges or constraints to the function 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. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is The Currensea Metal Card Worth It
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make 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 charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really easy 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 bank account bank immediately confirms 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% cost if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated invest notification by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
But transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to take place (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of money and the additional action. However that does not mean it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Necessary 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 free quantity on all our strategies, full information can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Is The Currensea Metal Card Worth It