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They’re both pretty amazing, and great for travel money, although overall we’re calling Currensea the winner. It’s super simple, easy to use, and has very low fees (0.5% or 0% on the paid plan (£25 per year)) – all you need to do is connect it to your bank account (via their app) and spend away in the local currency (imagine it as another card for you bank). There’s no need to top up like Revolut (which also has low fees).
Heading off abroad and considering which card is best for your travel money? You’re in the right place. Currensea and Revolut are both two of the top options (there’s also Wise¹ – explained later), but which is best? Let’s find out.
If you’re eager to find out the winner, it’s Currensea – it’s easy to set up and use, connects to your existing bank account (it’s a debit card), and the fees are super low (0.50% fee on the free plan, and 0% on the paid plan (£25 per year)). To learn more and get your card, head to the Currensea website¹.
Currensea is a pretty unique way to spend abroad (and cheap). Instead of opening a new bank account (to get a travel card), applying for a travel credit card, or using a prepaid travel card, all you do is connect your Currensea card to your existing bank account via the app – and that’s it. Imagine it just being another card for your bank account, it works exactly like a debit card (as it is one).
When you start spending abroad, you’ll automatically pay in the local foreign currency (e.g. Euros in Europe), and it will all come out of your bank account in Pounds. That means you can save some serious cash in bank fees – if you used your normal bank card, you’d pay some very hefty charges (and usually some hidden charges too).
It’s around 10 times cheaper than your bank account (in fact on a paid plan (£25 per year), there’s no fees at all).
Learn more: here’s our Curresea review to learn more. There’s also a business account.
Already keen to get a Currensea card? Head over to the Currensea website¹.
Revolut is an all-round amazing money app, and part of that is being epic for travel – one of the best prepaid currency cards.
You can hold multiple currencies in your Revolut account. When you use your card for overseas spending, you can spend in the local currency (if you have added them in your account). You’ll save loads of money compared to using your debit card with your regular bank account.
Depending on the currency you want to spend, you might be able to avoid fees altogether (e.g. with Euros) – it can be free to exchange money during the week depending on the currency and how much you want to swap (under £1,000 per month).
It’s also easy to set up, and there’s lots of extra money related features.
Learn more: here’s our Revolut review. And if you own your own business you can set up a business account¹.
If you’re keen to get started, here’s the Revolut website¹.
This is going to be a tough one as they’re both super easy to use.
With Curresea, all you need to do is sign up, connect to your bank account via their app, and start spending. There’s no need to top up, as money is taken from your bank account as and when you spend – imagine it just being another card for you bank account, except it’s for international spending. Pretty cool right?
With Revolut, there’s a few more hoops to jump through, as you’re opening a brand new account (it’s similar to a bank account).
So, you’ll need to sign up (still easy to do), and then transfer money over from your bank account, and then convert your money into the currency you want (e.g. Euros for holidays to Europe).
There’s a few more features within the app, such as investing in stocks and crypto, but you should find travel fairly easily.
You can then spend away, but you’ll need to keep ‘topping up’ if you need more cash to spend.
With the apps themselves, they’re very highly rated.
Currensea has a score of 4.9 out of 5 on the Apple App store, and 4.9 on Google Play store too. Almost perfect!
Revolut also has a rating of 4.9 on the Apple App store, but 4.5 on Google (which is still amazing).
Overall then, we’re giving this one to Currensea, it’s a bit easier.
Winner: Currensea
Currensea is super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too.
So what about the card itself?
With Currensea, you’ll get a Mastercard – that means you can spend it pretty much anywhere in the world, and all contactless, exactly the same as spending in the UK.
You’ll also benefit from the Mastercard Chargeback Guarantee, which means you can get your money back if something goes wrong with a transaction, such as your item not turning up, or paying for a boat trip that didn’t turn up.
In terms of using the card worldwide, Currensea can be used with 180 currencies – meaning pretty much wherever you go, and whatever currency you need to use, you can almost always use the Currensea card.
With Revolut, there’s still a wide range, with 29 currencies – that includes all the major currencies (Euros, Dollars etc). Unless you’re heading off somewhere fairly remote, you’ll likely be able to use your Revolut card, and it works in over 150 countries across the world.
Revolut is also a Mastercard, but also offers Visa in certain countries. You’ll likely get a Mastercard in the UK (and US), which means it’s exactly the same as Currensea.
And with both, you can get virtual cards, so you can buy things online with a bit more protection (a unique card just for that purchase), and you can freeze and unfreeze (block) your physical card whenever you want to (e.g. if you’re not on holiday) – it’s also a great safety feature if you lose the card.
And finally, with both, there’s no fees to get the physical card sent to your home address.
It’s pretty close right? But as Currensea has a wider range of currencies available, we’ve got to give it to them.
Winner: Currensea
With both, you can withdraw cash abroad, from most ATMs worldwide – it’s always handy to have a little bit of cash for things like tips.
As they’re both Mastercard, it works just the same as a regular bank card when making ATM withdrawals, so the only difference comes down to the fees.
With Currensea, you can withdraw up to £500 per month free. After that, it’s 2% on the free plan, and 1% on paid plans. That’s very good.
With Revolut, the limit is £200 per month for free cash withdrawals, and then 2% after that, with a minimum fee of £1 (still pretty good).
Winner: Currensea
They’re both great to save money, but which is cheaper overall? Let's find out.
First of all, both Currensea and Revolut use the ‘real’ exchange rate for all the major currencies (also called mid-market rate), such as Euros and Dollars – currencies used pretty much anywhere popular you might head off to on holiday.
That means there’s no extra fees hidden in the exchange rates, it’s the best rate out there (it’s often called the interbank rate, and is the exchange rate banks use to swap money between themselves).
With Currensea, some smaller currencies use the Mastercard rate, and this is a very similar rate, it just includes a very small fee to Mastercard (still a very good rate).
The main fee (with Currensea) is a transaction fee when you convert your money (as you spend), which is 0.5%. This is a very low rate – with a typical bank account, you can be paying around 3-5%.
This reduces to 0% if you sign up for a paid plan, which is £25 per year. There’s also an ‘elite’ plan (£120 per year), which has the same 0% fees, but loads of perks such as airport lounge access and discounts on hotels and car hire.
And that’s it for fees. Pretty simple.
With Revolut, it’s a bit more complicated. You’ll pay a different fee depending on which currency you want to use – the more popular currencies are typically fee free, for instance swapping Pounds to Euros is normally free.
However, this is only up to a limit, which is £1,000 per month (called a fair usage policy). After this, it’s 1% on the free plan, or 0.50% on the paid plans (plans start at £2.99 per month). On the more expensive plans, this reduces to 0%.
There’s also a 1% fee to exchange money on the weekends. A bit confusing right? So, if you are converting money during the week (and only using more popular currencies), and under £1,000 per month, Revolut works out cheaper.
Winner: Revolut
We’ve mostly focused on travel money and the best card to use abroad, but with both, they’re also great for international money transfers – sending money to family and friends abroad (or buying things from abroad).
With Currensea, the fees are pretty much exactly the same as spending with the card, so 0.5%. You can send Euros, Dollars, Polish Zloty and Hungarian Forint (with more currencies coming soon).
With Revolut, it’s free to send to another Revolut customer, and normally free to send within Europe. For other international payments, it’s 0.3% to 1.5% depending on the currency. At weekends there’s another 1% fee added (for all payments).
The same fair usage fee applies too, so if you send more than £1,000 per month, there will be another 1% fee (or 0.5% on paid plans, and 0% on the expensive plan).
With both, they send via a bank transfer, so normally very quick (a few hours).
Overall then, if you’re sending less than £1,000 to Europe, Revolut is cheaper. For more than this, Currensea works out cheaper.
For money transfers, we also recommend Wise¹ – it’s 0.43% per transaction (very low), and you can send as much as you like, in over 150 currencies worldwide.
Winner: Revolut
When it comes to customer service and general customer satisfaction, we like to look at the customer reviews – and one of the best places to do that is the popular reviews website, Trustpilot.
Currensea has got an excellent rating of 4.9 out of 5 (wow), from over 4,500 reviews. Lots of the reviews mention how great the card is for holidays, and how good the app is to use.
Revolut has a rating of 4.3 out of 5, and that’s from over 133,000 reviews – that’s a lot of reviews. Did we mention Revolut was pretty popular?
Currensea takes this round.
Winner: Currensea
They’re both pretty great cards aren’t they? Perfect for spending abroad (and money transfers). It’s going to be pretty tight to crown a winner.
You really can’t go wrong with either option, or Wise¹, which offers a prepaid travel card that can be used in over 150 countries and 40 currencies – and with fees of just 0.43%.
Currensea is great as you don’t need to set up much beforehand, just link it with your current account via the app and you’re good to go – the money comes directly out of your bank account when you spend, and all for the low fee of 0.5%, or 0% if you opt for a paid plan (£25 per year).
Plus, it works in pretty much every country around the world (all 180 currencies), and you can withdraw up to £500 per month with no fees (2% after).
Revolut is more than just travel money, with a packed out app for everything to do with your money. But when it comes to travel, it’s great.
If you time it right (during the week), and depending on the currency, you can convert your money for free, and then spend as you like abroad in the local currency. Otherwise, the weekend fee is 1%.
With Revolut you’ll need to top up beforehand, and if you want to spend more than £1,000 per month, there will be a 1% fee, and you can only withdraw £200 per month from an ATM for free (2% after that).
So, overall, there’s not much in it. But for ease of use, simplicity, it’s low cost, and the range of currencies available, we’re going to crown Currensea as the winner!
If you’re keen to learn more or get started with Currensea, here’s the Currensea website¹.
Or, if you’d like to learn more about Revolut, here’s the Revolut website¹.
Winner: Currensea
Currensea is super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too.
Currensea is super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too.
Currensea is super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too.
Christopher Dowling combines a communications degree with over 10 years experience in the financial services industry in London – with focus on educating people on a wide range of money topics in an easy to understand way. He writes about savings, investing, pensions, mortgages, insurance, banking, loans, business finance and other money topics.
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Currensea is super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too.