A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Platinum Metal Card…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (using you an affordable way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to make an application for, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
add a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t truly need or desire
include charges, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Phase 3 …
is simple 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? Currensea Platinum Metal Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges 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 using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial solution 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 charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no fees and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really basic 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 validates that you have sufficient 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. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% charge. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notice through the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any 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 reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is just about to occur (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the additional action. That does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly 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 Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Necessary Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Platinum Metal Card