Curve Card

Nick_C

The_Urbanite wrote: »

It took me 11 whole weeks to max Curve Debit out. However I'm going to be a good sport and leave it in the drawer til next year with no fuss

I not sure that the loopholes that are around at present will be still be there next year!

Oh, and the ATM limit is separate to the spending limit, so you can't have maxed that out surely?

The_Urbanite

Nick_C wrote: »

I not sure that the loopholes that are around at present will be still be there next year!

Oh, and the ATM limit is separate to the spending limit, so you can't have maxed that out surely?

I got duped into thinking that too. ATM withdrawals count towards the £50k purchases limit, despite a seperate £40k limit being shown in the app. The small amount of spend allowance I had left for R&D purposes was unexpectedly depleted because of this.

As for loopholes, I do a lot of outside of the box research and testing in this area and often finding new routes. There are always more opportunities!

The_Urbanite

Anthorn wrote: »

If we load a pre-paid card using a credit card that's most definitely a cash transaction. However I'm well informed about pre-paid cards or I like to think so and I don't know of any pre-paid cards which accept loading with a credit card.

There are literally hundreds of prepaid cards out there. There are loads you can top up with a credit card! Whether you'd want to is another matter.

Curve is a prepaid card. When you use it, you are buying e-money which is then used to pay for the transaction.

Nick_C

The_Urbanite wrote: »

I got duped into thinking that too. ATM withdrawals count towards the £50k purchases limit, despite a seperate £40k limit being shown in the app.

Oh ok. My 30 day spend was down to less than £100 the other day, but it allowed me to withdraw £200 from an ATM.

Anthorn

The_Urbanite wrote: »

There are literally hundreds of prepaid cards out there. There are loads you can top up with a credit card! Whether you'd want to is another matter.

News to me: Which pre-paid card(s) can be topped up with a credit card? You say "loads" but specifically which are they?

The_Urbanite wrote: »

Curve is a prepaid card. When you use it, you are buying e-money which is then used to pay for the transaction.

Curve itself as a pre-paid card is pretty much genius: Usually with a pre-paid card there is time involved in waiting for a top-up to become active especially if we top-up at the weekend. But with Curve it's instant.

electronicdreams

Has anyone successfully reached out to Tesco about the charges?
I've now got £5 worth of charges from the last few days which is really not ideal.

Anthorn

I haven't seen anything at all from Tesco Bank about Curve and I haven't received any letters at all from Tesco Bank about Curve. All I have received is a notice of variation which was issued in response to the new EU rules on data. When I Google it all I get is the thread on the Tesco Bank community forum.

This does in fact remind me of the Ebico / SSE affair when Ebico said SSE sent out a letter and SSE said they didn't and that was surrounded by considerable misinformation. Some people say they received two letters from Tesco Bank about Curve but yet certain long-standing Tesco Credit Card customers say they haven't received any letters about Curve at all. I'm in the latter group.

Also a question hangs over Curve: Is it a pre-paid card or not. There is a distinction in the Tesco Bank forum thread that Curve is not a pre-paid card because it's a debit card. Well, so is my Soldo pre-paid card a debit card.

What we really need is a statement directly from Tesco Bank but it does seem to me that Tesco Bank is responding to the objections to its treatment of Curve by burying its head in the proverbial sand!

Here's a link to the Tesco Bank forum discussion about Curve in case anyone missed it:
https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/t5/Help-Support/Tesco-treating-all-Curve-activity-as-cash-advances/td-p/20264

The_Urbanite

Anthorn wrote: »

News to me: Which pre-paid card(s) can be topped up with a credit card? You say "loads" but specifically which are they?

Here are a few examples;

Cash Passport - https://www.multicurrencycashpassport.com/travelexuk/topping-up-your-card/
Quidity - http://www.quiditycard.com/pre_pay_card_fees.html
Spark - https://www.sparkprepaid.com/how-to-load-your-card.html
Splash - http://www.mysplashcard.co.uk/about.html#fees
Tuxedo Prepaid - https://www.tuxedoprepaid.com/manage-your-money/how-to-pay-in/
Virgin Money - https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/prepaid-card/what-does-it-cost.jsp

Plenty more out there!

WillPS

Tesco Bank are backtracking (temporarily) on fees:
https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/t5/Help-Support/Tesco-treating-all-Curve-activity-as-cash-advances/m-p/20387/highlight/false#M11167

scragend

WillPS wrote: »

Tesco Bank are backtracking (temporarily) on fees:
https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/t5/Help-Support/Tesco-treating-all-Curve-activity-as-cash-advances/m-p/20387/highlight/false#M11167

Good news, and definitely a climb down. I realise it might only be for the time being, and they could well reinstate the fees in future, but in recent days their customer service reps have been unequivocally stating "the fees have been correctly charged and we will not be refunding".

I also had a wry smile at:

should we make any future changes we will let our customers know

That's generous of them :rotfl: