A new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. How Do I Know If My Currensea Card Is Verified…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You merely invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your present account– simply without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the totally free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or cheaper than the competitors
add a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t truly need or want
add charges, restrictions or fees to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Do I Know If My Currensea Card Is Verified
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize 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 …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very easy process. 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 bank account bank immediately validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the totally free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend alert via the app, if you choose 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 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 couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to take place (often in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the extra 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 Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our plans, full details can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. How Do I Know If My Currensea Card Is Verified