Curve Card

OllyM

mukundam123 wrote: »

I'm still going to wait for my Curve card. Even linked with a Visa/Mastercard, it'll still save the 2% credit card surcharges now applied by many online stores/airlines.

No it won't - it's treated as a credit card, not a debit card. The fee that merchants pay to accept it is higher than a normal credit card because it's a business card (and supposed to be used for business purchases...) which is exempt from the interchange fee cap.

The elevated interchange revenue is the only way that their business model stacks up.

NFH

OllyM wrote: »

No it won't - it's treated as a credit card, not a debit card. The fee that merchants pay to accept it is higher than a normal credit card because it's a business card (and supposed to be used for business purchases...) which is exempt from the interchange fee cap.

The IIN/BIN identifies Curve to merchants as a corporate prepaid debit card. You can check this at www.binchecker.org for example. Therefore most merchants that surcharge for credit cards accept it as a debit card for fee purposes, but some merchants don't accept it as a debit card for other reasons. For example, the National Lottery doesn't accept it at all because it doesn't accept prepaid cards (which can be obtained by under-16s) and it doesn't accept corporate cards either. Some merchants treat it as a credit card because the IIN/BIN was previously used by Westpac in Australia for credit cards, and the merchant is using an out-of-date IIN/BIN list.

[Deleted User]

This £50 reward seems interesting, if it can somehow be converted back to cash later in the year!

I paid £75... less £10 referral bonus so £65. If you deduct the £50 (assuming it does, at some point, come through as cash) that leaves it at £15 for the tin wallet thing and the card.

I never signed up for amex so totally understand it's not really a hit to me - but even those who joined for AMEX purposes - do you have any other non-amex credit cards? Using them where credit card is not accepted or is surcharged (and curve MAY be accepted without surcharge) gets you some benefit

Using curve to withdraw cash from Credit Card and sticking it in a first direct/tsb 6 or 5% account respectively will get you a little benefit too.

For genuine lower earners, it acts as a 'payday loan' without screwing up your credit file and without the extortionate charges that would be applied to a cash withdrawal on a 'standard' credit card (i.e. not clarity et al and available to low earners/poor credit - e.g. vanquis, cap1, Barclaycard initial etc)

I have a friend who wants to get the £25 card purely for lowering forex fees (they buy a lot from abroad and can be charged £4+ per time at the moment ). If i refer them that's essentially £15 for the card, and lowers my outlay down to £5 (above conditions re converting points etc included).

Also, IF the card is seen as debit by certain retailers, they'll offer cash back (as they did on a business prepaid card I had a few years back ) - if you make 5 x £1 (ish) purchases per week at say Tesco, and get £50 cash back each time via your credit card, that's 1000 a month to 'recycle'

NFH

Somerset_La_La_La wrote: »

I have a friend who wants to get the £25 card purely for lowering forex fees (they buy a lot from abroad and can be charged £4+ per time at the moment ).

So why pay 1% to Curve when they could pay 0% with a Halifax Clarity Card? FX surcharges are not a reason to get a Curve card, unless you receive benefits from expenditure on the underlying card that are worth substantially more than 1%.

NiftyDigits

Somerset_La_La_La wrote: »

This £50 reward seems interesting, if it can somehow be converted back to cash later in the year!

I paid £75... less £10 referral bonus so £65. If you deduct the £50 (assuming it does, at some point, come through as cash) that leaves it at £15 for the tin wallet thing and the card.

I never signed up for amex so totally understand it's not really a hit to me - but even those who joined for AMEX purposes - do you have any other non-amex credit cards? Using them where credit card is not accepted or is surcharged (and curve MAY be accepted without surcharge) gets you some benefit

Using curve to withdraw cash from Credit Card and sticking it in a first direct/tsb 6 or 5% account respectively will get you a little benefit too.

For genuine lower earners, it acts as a 'payday loan' without screwing up your credit file and without the extortionate charges that would be applied to a cash withdrawal on a 'standard' credit card (i.e. not clarity et al and available to low earners/poor credit - e.g. vanquis, cap1, Barclaycard initial etc)

I have a friend who wants to get the £25 card purely for lowering forex fees (they buy a lot from abroad and can be charged £4+ per time at the moment ). If i refer them that's essentially £15 for the card, and lowers my outlay down to £5 (above conditions re converting points etc included).

Also, IF the card is seen as debit by certain retailers, they'll offer cash back (as they did on a business prepaid card I had a few years back ) - if you make 5 x £1 (ish) purchases per week at say Tesco, and get £50 cash back each time via your credit card, that's 1000 a month to 'recycle'

in addition your friend will lose valuable Section 75 protection, so they may be better off utilising Revolut in that case.
Is this person actually your friend or are you looking to make money from them?

DeeWestern

As well as Halifax and Revlout, there's also Mondo which is free for foreign transactions.

The referral bonuses are now going to be paid out through the loyalty scheme (despite what it promises in the app), as well as the £50 cashback (which needs you to spend to qualify, not use cashpoints). Unfortunately the loyalty scheme doesn't have a firm launch date and was described this week as being just in 'the ideas stage' - so don't bank on this coming to fruition anytime soon.

[Deleted User]

NiftyDigits wrote: »

in addition your friend will lose valuable Section 75 protection, so they may be better off utilising Revolut in that case.
Is this person actually your friend or are you looking to make money from them?

I definitely can't get Halifax clarity, neither can he due to a small default on his file (confirmed with the bank themselves, and a soft search). So that's one out the window.

Will check out revolut

If I was interested in making money, I'd spam my referral code everywhere! Just posted a question - if this is £5/£15 (or even £25 for those that pay full whack and don't get referral cash back) for rewards FOR EVER (in theory) is it as 'dead in the water' as some are claiming?

All a matter of opinion - but certainly am not looking to refer people just for money! If this revolut has better benefits I'll tell him about it

[Deleted User]

Interesting article http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/05/25/2163158/its-no-fun-when-amex-throws-your-startup-a-curve-ball/

Although it was always clear Curve was using Arbitrage, the loss on Amex (quoted to be a 2% loss on each transaction) is surprisingly high given that Curve actively promoted it in its marketing material

As mentioned above, S75 loss and dispute issues are a valid concern, so in some respects Amex is acting entirely responsibly in suspending curve payments until those issues (which are big, and affect everybody Inc Visa/MasterCard card holders) are resolved.

Given who is involved, I'd hope curve do implement clear dispute resolution policies AND with that; bring AMEX support back

A key reason I signed up was the backing it had received from experienced businesses - plus I always like to support startups and similar. It may well be that I'm in the minority and in a year i turn out to be wrong.... time will tell!

OldSpice's comment on that article would be amazing too.... a cashback card available to people that may struggle to get one otherwise (e.g. self employed and poor credit history)

Paulautodetail

My OH has just applied for one

jraf

The plot thickens...still early days yet. This is such an interesting concept and it's fascinating to see everything develop in the beta stages. Hope that curve can get their policies straight with AMEX, no reason why it can't be mutually beneficial.