A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Martin Lewis Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (using you an affordable method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, 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 merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to make an application for, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
include more and more functions which your existing clients don’t actually need or want
include constraints, charges or costs to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Martin Lewis Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge 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 cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very simple process. 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 verifies that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated invest notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily over the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking money and the additional action. That does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make income from our Necessary Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Martin Lewis Currensea Card