Curve Card

jcontest

I have had a reply from them and I paste it below.
My name and agents name have been removed, it seems to clearly explain the problem, shows others spotted/reported it, and shows that they have fixed it.
It does sound like the fix might take time to filter down.




Glad we didn't drop £600 at Costco or anything because that 3% fee I pay would have stung. Hope no one else is out of pocket due to this.

~SNIP~ (Curve)
May 2, 16:34 BST
Hi ~SNIP~,

Thank you for getting in touch.

What happened is that on 24th April, we changed our Merchant Category Code from 8999 (Professional Service) to 6540 (Non Financial Institution) because MasterCard thought it would be a better fit for us.

However, we quickly found out that this was not the case and the change in MCC caused an increase in declines and some users found that their transactions with Curve attracted cash advance fees. We moved quickly and reverted to our original Merchant Category Code on the 26th April.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a slight delay in the way some systems update. We are working with our payment processor to reset this across the board but in the meantime, deleting your card and re-adding it is a good solution.

We are sorry for the inconvenience, please let us know if there's anything else we can help you with.
Best wishes,
~SNIP~
Team Curve

As I am not clued up on when this code is passed (purchase time from merchant, processing from processor, or held on bank system), then I would probably make sure a test transaction doesnt incur a fee before you use it a lot.

WillPS

I'm dubious. The 26th April date coincides pretty perfectly with when Natwest began charging me Cash Advance fees.

I think whatever change they made that day caused the transactions to go in as cash transactions.

Without wanting to go all Mchambers, I think it's reasonable to expect compensation under the circumstances.

faddy

OceanSound wrote: »

Does Curve's terms say 'we are not responsible for any fee that the bank may charge (for the type of GBP transaction the OP has carried out)'?

No. Neither do they say "We are not responsible if Tesco put up the price of fish" but that doesn't make them responsible if Tesco do. (Though as a Curve customer I shall be disappointed if charges by card issuers become the norm.)

scragend

jcontest wrote: »

I have spoken to Natwest today and they have said to me that as of the 22nt of April.



He said that they had nothing to do with the way the classification is done and if I wanted to find out who made the change I should reach out to Mastercard or Curve.


So, unless this was a mistake by Mastercard, using this against anything other than a debit card will likely result in you paying whatever cash advance fee your issuer charges. That is, I am taking it out of my wallet for now!


I am reaching out to Curve to see if they can give me any information. As it is a merchant code then I would have thought everyone will be hit (Not just Natwest users).

Are we just talking cash withdrawals via Curve pointed to a credit card, or *all* Curve transactions (including purchases) pointed to a credit card?

I've used Curve about a dozen times since 22nd April against my Tesco credit card and not been charged a cash advance fee. They've all been purchases though, not cash withdrawals.

In recent months I've been withdrawing £200 at the beginning of the month on Curve again via the Tesco card (0% interest on purchases). I haven't done it yet this month, if I'm going to get charged a cash advance fee then I won't do it.

scragend

Oh sorry, I didn't see the last page of replies before I posted.

However, I've just noticed that on 1st May I was charged a "non financial institution stored value card purchase fee" of £1.00. My two purchases on that day were both from Amazon, a purchase for £9.99 and a gift card top up for £50.00. So the £1 looks like a 2% charge on the gift card top up.

I'm confused...

SnowTiger

scragend wrote: »

Oh sorry, I didn't see the last page of replies before I posted.

However, I've just noticed that on 1st May I was charged a "non financial institution stored value card purchase fee" of £1.00. My two purchases on that day were both from Amazon, a purchase for £9.99 and a gift card top up for £50.00. So the £1 looks like a 2% charge on the gift card top up.

I'm confused...

I made a purchase using my Tesco credit card on 1st May that would, under usual circumstances, be considered quasi cash. I haven't been charged a fee.

Card providers will be unaware of how the (Curve) card is used. All they know is that you paid for a service. They won't know whether it's a charge for a physical item, a service, ATM withdrawal or something else.

Is the charge you mention from Tesco Bank or Amazon?

stevenhp1987

SnowTiger wrote: »

I made a purchase using my Tesco credit card on 1st May that would, under usual circumstances, be considered quasi cash. I haven't been charged a fee.

Card providers will be unaware of how the (Curve) card is used. All they know is that you paid for a service. They won't know whether it's a charge for a physical item, a service, ATM withdrawal or something else.

Is the charge you mention from Tesco Bank or Amazon?

Have you read previous replies?

They can only charge based on what Curve tell them... and the merchant code recently changed from "services" to "purchase cash value load" and some banks will consider that a cash advance (prime example is RBS).

This means that since the change, banks are not aware they have paid for a "service" but think they have loaded cash... Some banks have therefore charged all Curve transactions as Cash Transactions (as the merchant code is a cash transaction code).

scragend

SnowTiger wrote: »

Is the charge you mention from Tesco Bank or Amazon?

The charge was by Amazon.

jcontest

scragend wrote: »

The charge was by Amazon.

Sauce
Note:

• Some banks may require registration of pre-paid gift cards by name and billing address.
• There's a £1 authorisation at the time of order to make sure the payment method is valid. This authorisation isn't a charge, but banks may hold the authorised funds as unavailable until the authorisation expires.

It's probably a lot like when you get petrol on the Curve Card. Normally there's a "Hold" put on a card, but for some reason these are treated differently and £1 comes out and the final cost is later adjusted. So what you will probably see is £1, then £9.99, and later it'll change to just show £9.99, but when you view it on the account Curve bills you shouldn't see the £1 at all once the £9.99 has it.

scragend

jcontest wrote: »

Sauce
Note:

• Some banks may require registration of pre-paid gift cards by name and billing address.
• There's a £1 authorisation at the time of order to make sure the payment method is valid. This authorisation isn't a charge, but banks may hold the authorised funds as unavailable until the authorisation expires.

It's probably a lot like when you get petrol on the Curve Card. Normally there's a "Hold" put on a card, but for some reason these are treated differently and £1 comes out and the final cost is later adjusted. So what you will probably see is £1, then £9.99, and later it'll change to just show £9.99, but when you view it on the account Curve bills you shouldn't see the £1 at all once the £9.99 has it.

Thanks - so it's not related to the Curve cash advance issue at all then. That's good :-)