A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Oyster Card Currensea…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you a low-priced method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
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 existing account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to make an application for, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, however the complimentary strategy 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 cheaper than the competition
include more and more features which your existing clients don’t really desire or require
include charges, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Oyster Card Currensea
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company 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 require a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps 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 charge card particularly to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically verifies that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend alert by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash 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:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to happen (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion costs occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately in the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. However that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Oyster Card Currensea