Curve Card

jdp80

Interestingly I can't see your thread on the main board list. I think it might have been hidden..

scragend

chasb73 wrote: »

Quick question... if anyone knows...

I have a Halifax clarity mastercard added to my Curve card which natively is in GBP.

If I select this cards currency to be Euro's in the Curve app will I still incur the 1% foreign exchange fee from Curve when using it to buy something in Euros or will that transaction pass through without charge to my Halifax Clarity account as Euros and then be converted into GBP?

Thanks
Charlie

This tweet from Curve would suggest that you can charge an underlying card in Euros and let the card do the exchange.

(Apologies if you were the tweeter, and therefore have had your answer already)

Anthorn

WillPS wrote: »

For what it's worth, I've set up a thread on Tesco Bank's community forum. If anyone affected would chime in that'd be grand:

https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/t5/Help-Support/Tesco-treating-all-Curve-activity-as-cash-advances/m-p/20264#M10976

I read the thread and the reply from Tesco Bank. Even more puzzling: On one hand it doesn't apply to Curve and on the other it does (c.f. my previous post). However having a Tesco Bank credit card for some time I'm not really surprised they themselves don't know what's going on.

I didn't receive any letter at all about Curve and I repeat from my previous post that the letters are perhaps only sent to those who were affected by the fee applied to Curve transactions.

Penelopa.Pitstop

SnowTiger wrote: »

Don't limits get upped automatically?

Mine started low, but my 365 day limits now are £50,000 for purchases and £40,00 for ATM usage.

I didn't ask for them to be increased.

I asked for increase as I have £7K payment to HMRC but was told to wait a few more weeks, use the card and ask again. Not sure what's the problem with credibility, since it's not credit card and all payments are going to attached card. So after I make £3K payment I will reach limit and won't be able to do any transactions anyway.

scragend

Anthorn wrote: »

I read the thread and the reply from Tesco Bank. Even more puzzling: On one hand it doesn't apply to Curve and on the other it does (c.f. my previous post). However having a Tesco Bank credit card for some time I'm not really surprised they themselves don't know what's going on.

I didn't receive any letter at all about Curve and I repeat from my previous post that the letters are perhaps only sent to those who were affected by the fee applied to Curve transactions.

Tesco are making a very ham-fisted attempt at defending themselves on Twitter. Apparently Curve counts as a cash transaction but PayPal doesn't, because PayPal is a "payment intermediary" whereas with Curve "money is transferred from your credit card account to your Curve card prior to being passed from Curve to the retailer".

Is this not the very definition of an intermediary?!

EDIT: I hadn't read the latest posts on the Tesco community thread when I posted the above message. It seems they are trying to make the same totally incoherent defence on there as well.

SnowTiger

Anthorn wrote: »

I read the thread and the reply from Tesco Bank. Even more puzzling: On one hand it doesn't apply to Curve and on the other it does (c.f. my previous post). However having a Tesco Bank credit card for some time I'm not really surprised they themselves don't know what's going on.

It seems pretty clear from Tesco Bank's posts on its forum that they consider Curve to be a prepaid card:

Curve cards operate in the same manner as prepaid cards whereby money is transferred from your credit card account to your Curve card prior to being passed from Curve to the retailer. The changes made to our fees mean that a transaction of this nature to a prepaid card is classified as a cash transaction, and so therefore carries the same fee.

Your previous post was from an article—an opinion piece—written by a third party.

Sadly, I think others will follow Tesco Bank's lead.

scragend

SnowTiger wrote: »

It seems pretty clear from Tesco Bank's posts on its forum that they consider Curve to be a prepaid card:



Your previous post was from an article—an opinion piece—written by a third party.

Sadly, I think others will follow Tesco Bank's lead.

But what Tesco are failing to appreciate (probably on purpose) is that Curve differs from a prepaid card in one key way. A transaction through Curve is for a specific purpose, i.e. that one purchase. It's not the same as a prepaid card, where you load it with cash and then go and spend that wherever you want.

jdp80

I think this will come down to the FCA to rule on, and am willing to progress that far. No doubt all CCs will introduce this if it's allowed and that will spell big trouble for Curve.

As I understand it, Curve front the payment (hence the credit limit?) then recharge from the debit or credit card - does that count as prepaid? I think it shouldn't.

I suspect the fact that Curve lump all transactions under the same MCC (financial product?) instead of passing on the actual transaction codes is undermining their position. If they changed it so that restaurant transactions were coded as 5812, Tesco wouldn't be able to charge them.

I can see that they might be miffed people can make cash transactions via their CC, but there must be a better way to deal with this than just charging everything as interest-payable, chargeable transactions.

scragend

It's annoying that I am only three months into a 32-month 0% purchase deal on my Tesco credit card. I could carry on using it but just not via Curve, but I like Curve and want to use it. I could leave the purchases that are already there and just pay them off over time, but on principle I just want to tell Tesco to shove it and sever any financial ties I have with them.

It's not so much the fact that they have made this change that irks me (although it does), but the way they have gone about it and the smarmy way they are defending it.

SnowTiger

jdp80 wrote: »

As I understand it, Curve front the payment (hence the credit limit?) then recharge from the debit or credit card - does that count as prepaid? I think it shouldn't.

I think it's the other way around.

Why? Because a transaction with a Curve card will fail if the transaction with the underlying card fails.

Take the recent Visa outage as an example. Purchases made with a Curve card (Mastercard) failed if the underlying card was Visa.

jdp80 wrote: »

I suspect the fact that Curve lump all transactions under the same MCC (financial product?) instead of passing on the actual transaction codes is undermining their position. If they changed it so that restaurant transactions were coded as 5812, Tesco wouldn't be able to charge them.

It's probably not possible to change the MCC on-the-fly.

jdp80 wrote: »

I can see that they might be miffed people can make cash transactions via their CC, but there must be a better way to deal with this than just charging everything as interest-payable, chargeable transactions.

Going back to the old type of card (not debt) Curve previously used and not allowing punters to make cash withdrawals might placate Tesco Bank.

I think the problem is that Curve allows a credit card to be used like a debit card. Perhaps you aren't aware of the ramifications of that, but me and (presumably) lots of other Curve customers are. :rotfl: