A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Can You Use A Currensea Card In Japan…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
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 merely invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing clients do not truly require or desire
include restrictions, costs or charges 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 stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use A Currensea Card In Japan
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very basic 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 instantly validates that you have sufficient 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. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% fee. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notice by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash 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 on:.
However converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is just about to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the additional step. However that does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly 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 Vital Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our plans, full information can be found on our pricing plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost likewise eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Can You Use A Currensea Card In Japan