A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. How To Order A New Currensea Card…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your current account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
add a growing number of functions which your existing customers do not really require or want
add costs, charges or limitations to the function that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Order A New Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does operate 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 local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank instantly validates 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% charge if you have the totally free card. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend alert via the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises big savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less worry 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 awful 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 Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make revenue from our Important Plan whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, full information can be found on our pricing strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. How To Order A New Currensea Card