A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Business Card Price…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, however the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
include increasingly more functions which your existing consumers don’t truly require or want
add restrictions, costs or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic 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? Currensea Business Card Price
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 don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps 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 charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really simple 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 confirms that you have sufficient cash 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% charge if you have the free card. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice through the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later.
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 reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea assures big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking cash and the additional step. But that does not imply it is perfect.
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 small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make income from our Vital Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, full details can be found on our pricing strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Business Card Price