Curve Card

Lightning360

I don't know if this is the right forum group for this.

Is getting a curve card worth it? What benefits have you had from using it? What are the problems you have faced? 

This is also a very odd question, but what envelope did the card come in? Was it a plain white one or did it have the curve logo on it?

jbrassy

In my opinion, they aren't worth it.

If you want to get the free card for overseas spending, you'd be better off getting a Starling Bank account.

If you want to get the Black or Metal cards for cashback, you'd be better off getting an American Express Platinum credit card.

If you want fee free overseas spending and cashback, you'd be better off getting the Barclaycard Rewards card.

If you want all the insurance that the metal card provides, it's probably more cost effective to buy these separately.

The only time it was ever worth it was when you could add Amex to it and therefore pay with Amex in stores which didn't accept it. However, Curve no longer accept Amex. 

colsten

I use the free version and am loving it. Initially, I thought it's a gimmick, and I only signed up for it for the referral money and the 90-day cashback. Since then, I have totally changed my mind, and the Curve card is the card I use almost exclusively now. The reason is that I have a lot of different credit and debit cards that I want / need to all use in various places. The Curve card saves me from having to carry more than one card, and to remember more than one CVV.

I use the Curve card in ApplePay (phone and watch), have stored it in my Chrome and Edge browsers, and on shopping sites. This saves me from having to delete and add umpteen cards in umpteen places when I switch accounts, or when cards expire. The only place I need to register them in is my Curve wallet.

Adding / removing a card to/from the Curve wallet is simple, and so is telling Curve which card to use. If you mistakenly use the wrong card for a transaction, you can use the "Go Back in Time" feature and move it to the correct card (I have used this once or twice). The Curve limits (on top of my individual card limits) are comfortable for my requirements. I love that I can add notes or photos to individual transactions. Curve have recently introduced what they call the "Anti-Embarrassment Mode", which allows you to specify one or more other cards Curve will automatically try if your default card gets declined for some reason. I have enabled this but it's not been used so far.

My Curve card 'lives', together with all my other cards, in my safe and I can't remember the last time I took any of them physically out of the house. All I need is my phone or watch. If I need the Curve card details, I can view them in the Curve app.

Never had reason to use their CS, so I can't comment on how efficient or otherwise they are. I have also not used their dedicated Community Chat / Forum but it looks like an active forum to ask Qs, make suggestions, participate in Betas etc. Extensive help and FAQ is available in the app, and I think also online.

I don't use a whole lot of the functions in the free version, such as viewing my bank balances, categorising my transactions, sending money to other Curve users, sending email receipts, personal/business classification, purchases abroad, Curve-fronted, etc. I also don't use Curve Black or Curve Metal. But I can see that some or all of these could be very useful to others, or even to myself in future.

Whether any of the Curve features are of use to you, only you can tell.

As to whether the card comes in a neutral envelope - I can't remember, it's years since I got mine.

Fingerbobs

colsten said:

As to whether the card comes in a neutral envelope - I can't remember, it's years since I got mine.

Pretty sure mine came in custom packaging emblazoned with the Curve logo and maybe a slogan or two, and a slidey-out section to release the card.

jay1804

To answer your questions...
Is getting a curve card worth it?
If you are referred and pick the Blue subscription it's great  - free £5 and 1% cashback for 90 days at selected retailers.
For the other subscriptions it depends on your needs.

What benefits have you had from using it?
If you have multiple cards, it's easier as you can use any of them via Curve.

Envelope
It definitely doesn't come in a standard white one. 

What are the problems you have faced? 
Below...

Last year Curve had some problems around June, which affected a lot of people, including me. It was do with their card/payment provider. Anyway Curve overcame this in a matter of days, and their service was partially working again. There was only one problem that had some for a couple months, which was refunds, i was missing two refunds (£****) for about 1.5 months, and the customer service wasn't the best in fixing the issues. - 

Long story short 

- Their end was showing the refund and they had the ARN (Acquirer Reference Number).
-My card provider only received one refund.
-There was loads of communication with different teams in curve, their answer was that they sent the refund.
- I submitted a chargeback to my card provider and then made a formal complain to Curve.
- Once I submitted the complaint I received the same response and a gestures of goodwill of £25 curve cash for a full and final settlement  (bearing in mind i'm still missing £****).
- I receive the chargeback credit. I informed curve, then they found out it was a problem at their end. Curve sent the refund and I cancelled the chargeback.
-Now they sent me an actual redress which was; A. £50 bank transfer, £100 curve cash, and 1 year Curve metal or B. £50 bank transfer and £150 Curve cash.
- I opted for A.

So I've had curve metal for free since September 2020, it been alright, I wouldn't pay for it personally. The main features I use is
GBiT and Curve fronted. I pay my AmEx bill with Curve, so I get points from the AmEx and Cashback from the underlying credit card (I tried it with Aqua Rewards and BarclayCard Rewards -  no fees or interest). I'm hoping I will be able to use the card abroad before I have to cancel in September, but i doubt it.

WillPS

What's the situation with Curve and Tesco Bank credit cards currently? A few years ago there was a fairly farsical situation where they started treating all Curve transactions as cash. The whole thing went on for months, but obviously I stopped using Tesco Bank via Curve at the time and haven't tried since; I'd be interested to know if it works now though.

PRAISETHESUN

I only use the free Curve card. I used to use it a lot but not so much these days - I mostly use it as a pseudo-virtual credit card when making online purchases from dodgy websites (small ones that wouldn't get S75 anyway), or in the few places where I can't use my Amex. It's nice being able to link multiple cards and update them on the fly - the "go back in time" feature is also nice when I need to shuffle transactions around between cards. Outside of that I find it getting less and less use these days - it's not that it's a bad product, just that the changes they've made over the last few years have made it much less useful to me.

PRAISETHESUN

WillPS said:

What's the situation with Curve and Tesco Bank credit cards currently? A few years ago there was a fairly farsical situation where they started treating all Curve transactions as cash. The whole thing went on for months, but obviously I stopped using Tesco Bank via Curve at the time and haven't tried since; I'd be interested to know if it works now though.

Haven't used it for a while with my Tesco CC but last I heard it had been fixed and Tesco refunded anyone affected. If you're shopping in Tesco though, you're better off using the actual Tesco card for the extra clubcard points - Curve masks where the transaction happens so Tesco won't see it as an in-store spend.

colsten

I haven't ever used a Tesco CC on Curve. Barclaycard, Nationwide Select CC, Halifax Clarity and M&S CC are working fine for me, as do all the debit cards I have used. 

Roger1

For me, its USP is that I can link points- or miles-earning cards, thus earning points/miles abroad with 0% currency conversion (except at weekends when I think a surcharge is applied).

Lightning360

Thank you for your help. There doesn't seem to be any downside to just getting the free one and trying it out so I might as well get it.

I really don't care about a metal card and I'm not planning on getting Curve Metal, but why does their website have a red metal card but their app only has the blue metal and the rose gold (?) metal ones? Have they ran out or something?