Originally Posted by
CX HK
Sorry, one more question - has anyone dealt with Currensea before and if yes, how is their customer service? Just want to make sure it's a decent company to deal with, since this will 1) be a card used abroad and 2) is a debit card, in case any fraud related issues come up. Thank!
Sorry I've noticed that there is actually a separate page for the Hilton card's exchange rates
https://hiltonhonorsdebitcard.currensea.co.uk/rates
It seems that the rates for the Hilton Plus card are only the same as the Currensea Basic, and the standard Hilton card is 0.5% worse; the Currensea Pro card is 0.5% better. I don't know if it's because it's a weekend right now, but the so-called live rates for the Hilton Plus card are around 0.6%
worse than the current Mastercard rate.
Anyway it's not a blanket rule that Visa or Mastercard are 0.5% over the actual interbank rate. Both card schemes determine their exchange rates in advance and post them on their websites, Visa at midnight UTC and Mastercard at 3.05pm ET, and those rates are remain valid for the following 24 hours, or 72 hours over a weekend. On average the Visa and MC rates are between 0.2-0.8% worse than interbank at the time they are revealed, but they do not change over the next working day regardless of what happens to the actual interbank rate. This can sometimes be used to your advantage if the interbank rate moves against you after the Visa and MC rates are set.
Addtionally I hope you are aware that currensea charges you for each individual transaction by direct debit from a UK bank account.