A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Debit Card Canada…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend 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. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model 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 a growing number of functions which your existing customers don’t really desire or need
include costs, constraints or charges to the function that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Debit Card Canada
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company 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 don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps 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 credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely simple 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 current account bank automatically verifies 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. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the free card. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification via the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and purchase 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:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to occur (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea assures big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the additional action. That does not suggest it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Debit Card Canada