A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. Comisioane Card Currensea…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-cost way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your current account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competition
add more and more functions which your existing consumers do not actually require or desire
add constraints, fees or charges to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Comisioane Card Currensea
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very easy procedure. You use 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 automatically validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the totally free card. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend alert through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank 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 reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to occur (frequently in a different 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 anyhow.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea assures huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
However I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make earnings from our Necessary Plan whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Comisioane Card Currensea