A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. How To Activate My Currensea Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing customers do not really want or need
include charges, constraints or costs 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 procedure and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy 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 To Activate My Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
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 credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which provide a partial option 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 credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, 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 really simple procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately confirms that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction 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% fee. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notification via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your current 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 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the best bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the extra action. That does not suggest it is best.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Plan 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 amount on all our plans, full details can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Activate My Currensea Card