A new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. Can You Use A Currensea Card In Mexico…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-cost way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to get, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, however the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or less expensive than the competition
add a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t truly need or desire
add charges, restrictions or charges to the function that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use A Currensea Card In Mexico
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
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 fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product 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 taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank instantly validates that you have adequate cash 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 free card, adds a 0.5% cost. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notification through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash 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 few days later on:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion costs happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully recently a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking money and the extra step. However that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our prices plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Can You Use A Currensea Card In Mexico