A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Can I Let Someone Horrow My Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (using you an affordable method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
include a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t really require or want
add constraints, charges or charges to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy 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? Can I Let Someone Horrow My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank automatically verifies that you have adequate 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. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the free card. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 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:.
But transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures huge cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking money and the additional action. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our pricing strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Can I Let Someone Horrow My Currensea Card