A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Colors…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing consumers do not really need or desire
include restrictions, costs 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 process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Colors
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
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 credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far 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 possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely 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, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have sufficient cash 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, adds a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notice through the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 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:.
But converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is practically to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards guarantees big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra action. That does not indicate 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 plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make revenue from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our rates plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Card Colors