Giving customers the most competitive travel money exchange rates.
Use cases
Travel / FX
Operating regions
Global
CUSTOMERS
UK consumers looking for a travel card
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The partner
Currensea is the UK’s first free travel money card directly linked to a customer’s bank account. Rather than provide consumers with an entirely new account for travel purposes, Currensea’s card, instead is layered on top of an existing bank account, allowing consumers to spend directly, safely, and securely.
But how did Currensea achieve this innovation, and what challenges did they face during its inception and development?
The challenge
To become the UK’s very first card-based payment instrument issuer, Currensea needed to cross untrod ground to create a card solution that met the European Commission’s policy of debit cards being separated from an underlying payment account. Without a pre-established blueprint, Currensea needed a partner that wasn’t afraid to break new ground—one with both the expertise in cutting-edge payments technology, and also the expertise, agility and flexibility to help them navigate the market and offer a payments product that offered value, reliability and real-life utility.
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The solution
With Thredd’s deep experience in travel debit cars and knowledge of card network rules Thredd helped Currensea navigate the European Commission’s regulatory framework, as well as direct Open Banking integrations to launch their game-changing new debit card product fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Leveraging their long-term relationship with Thredd as both issuer processor and partner, Currensea now provides consumers with a travel card with the best travel money exchange rates compared to banks, supermarkets, and The Post Office, as well as additional benefits such as no weekend charges, non-sterling transaction fees, foreign currency purchase fees, internet purchase fees, or dormant card fees. It is truly a card that travelers can embrace.
Currensea also leveraged Thredd’s capabilities to support its ESG objectives via an automatic contribution of a percentage of customer savings to an environmental organisation every time they spend with the travel card. With this feature, consumers using the XYZ card not only enjoy personal benefits but help to reduce ocean plastic waste and plant trees in forest biome.
Thredd really embraced our approach of a mutually winning card proposition. Working in partnership, we were able to launch those 15 co-brands? in a way which was very cost-effective.
James Lynn
Currensea Co-Founder and CEO
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The payoff
Currensea has now enjoyed a successful rollout of its pioneering travel card, with 3x the volumes for 2023 compared with 2022. The Currensea travel card joins over 15 ongoing co-brand card initiatives, which are also performing extremely well.
In fact, the partnership has proven so fruitful that Currensea is now working alongside Thredd once more, piloting a new financial inclusion product, launching in 2023.
Commenting on the partnership, Currensea CEO James Lynn stated: “Partnerships, for me, are about mutual wins. You both go into the partnership, and when there’s success, you both share in that success.”
