Barclaycard Rewards via Curve - what counts as cash?

SoozyJ22

With the removal of cashback from my Nationwide credit card, I've now switched to the Barclaycard Rewards card instead. I'm hoping I can continue to use my Curve card to earn cashback on transactions on websites which only accept debit cards, but I've seen on here that credit card providers can treat certain purchases differently in terms of whether they're considered cash (with associated fees/interest) or purchases. Does anyone have experience of how Barclaycard would treat the following? All were treated as purchases by Nationwide, but I'd like to be sure before using my Barclaycard:
- Purchasing reduced price gift vouchers through an employee discounts website (run by Sodexo)
- Making pension contributions
- Purchasing investments (e.g. on Vanguard)

jimroy

I use my Curve card with my Barclaycard and am sure I have been earning Cashback on purchases when using it. Unlike other cards where you earn more points with using a rewards card directly and getting less when using Curve at the same retailer, the Barclaycard Rewards card is much more straight forward and clear cut. It's a simple 0.25% per transaction regardless of whether you use it directly or under Curve. Correct me of I'm wrong on that please.
As for your other query, all I can say is that you would have to enable Curve Fronted for some of those transactions which would incur a fee of 1.5% per transaction if you don't have the Metal Card subscription where its included.
I found that out recently when I got a refund back to Curve Cash instead of my Sainsbury's card and I couldn't transfer it as a payment using my Curve debit card linked to the Curve Cash balance in Sainsbury's Bank online banking. The transaction was declined.    

SoozyJ22

Thanks for replying. However these aren't transactions that require Curve Fronted - they work fine with Curve as they're not strictly cash or one of the MCCs (HMRC?) that's also included under that umbrella. The Curve app classifies them as "Business Services" not cash, the same as my local garage, or if I get a massage. However my understanding is that card issuers will make their own decisions on whether a transaction is cash or purchase depending on the MCC and things like this might fall into a grey area. Of course without seeing the MCC that's being used it's even harder to tell how these would be classified which doesn't help. So that's why I was asking if anyone had experience with these particular types of transactions to see how Barclaycard treats them. If no-one's done this I guess I'll just have to take a risk with a small transaction and see what happens. 

gobeye

You will probably find that people who know this won't readily give up this information but as you say, certain providers do treat such transactions as regular purchases. A small initial transaction is the way forward.

The one I can offer for free is that the RBS / NatWest reward card definitely treats these as cash advances and you will be charged a fee for using that card.