A new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. Currensea Refer A Friend…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– just without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
include a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t truly desire or need
add limitations, fees or charges to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve 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? Currensea Refer A Friend
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only 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 needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very basic procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically confirms that you have enough 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. If you have the totally free card, adds a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notification through the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost 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 anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and a great app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the additional step. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly 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 deal, permitting us to make income from our Vital Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, full information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Refer A Friend