A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. If You Use A Currensea Top Up Card When Abroad…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (using you an inexpensive way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, however the free 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 more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing consumers do not truly require or want
add constraints, fees or charges to the function that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? If You Use A Currensea Top Up Card When Abroad
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX charges are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact 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 monthly with no charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic 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 automatically 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 on the currency. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, 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 few days later:.
But transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is just about to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea promises big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of money and the additional step. That does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make revenue from our Necessary 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 complimentary amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. If You Use A Currensea Top Up Card When Abroad