Curve to start treating NS&I transactions as "Curve Fronted" from 7th October

Fingerbobs

Just in case anyone missed it, I recently had an email from Curve saying (among other things) that NS&I transactions will be treated as "Curve Fronted" with effect from 7th October.

They are also capping Curve Fronted transactions to £10k per month for Metal customers.

HalfManHalfBiscuit

Am I right in thinking you could previously use Curve to buy Premium bonds, charge free and interest free and then cash in the bonds?

I have a Curve card but haven't used it for a while. I also have a new credit card (10k) with interest free purchases for 21 months but the purchases have to me made within the first 60 days.

Are there any other remaining good uses for the Curve card?

I was thinking of using it to put £10k into my SIPP. Would this be possible?

Thanks in advance

Worried_fool

HalfManHalfBiscuit said:

Am I right in thinking you could previously use Curve to buy Premium bonds, charge free and interest free and then cash in the bonds?

I have a Curve card but haven't used it for a while. I also have a new credit card (10k) with interest free purchases for 21 months but the purchases have to me made within the first 60 days.

Are there any other remaining good uses for the Curve card?

I was thinking of using it to put £10k into my SIPP. Would this be possible?

Thanks in advance

I was alerted to this possibility by that email. I did as you suggest, and the transaction went through without any issues. However, it is not possible to sell the Bonds until the funds have cleared, and this takes a few days.

Fingerbobs

HalfManHalfBiscuit said:

Am I right in thinking you could previously use Curve to buy Premium bonds, charge free and interest free and then cash in the bonds?

Not just Premium Bonds; this worked with all NS&I products, including their Direct Saver instant access savings account.

Deposits into the account via Curve appeared as a normal purchase on the underlying credit card (generating cashback or whatever other perks the card offered), and could be withdrawn to a bank account 8 days later.

My Curve card is now effectively defunct, but I'll hold onto it just in case I find another use.

HalfManHalfBiscuit

It's a shame this has been stopped and I missed out on the opportunity.

gwapenut

I saw this email too, but was confused as I thought this all changed in April 2020. Having purchased £20k ob bonds realier this year via normal debit card (not even my Tesco bank debit card, which may hve earned clubcard points), I'm wondering if I've missed a good cashback opportunity.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/04/26/curve-card-adds-1-5-fee-credit-card-repayments-national-savings-premium-bond-purchases/

And Curve themselves said there was a 1.5% fee back in July. And yet the email implies it starts from last week.

https://help.curve.com/en_us/which-transactions-will-curve-fronted-fees-apply-to-r1FErO38_

Fingerbobs

I can't say for Premium Bonds, but Direct Saver deposits defnitely haven't been triggering Curve Fronted until this month.