Curve just screwed themselves over

jtgaoler wrote: »

Response from Curve is for a Starling topup via Google Pay onto an underlying CC...

This is where I bow out - I have no idea what that means.

Sad_Dad wrote: »

Really bad timing for me. Only just received my two cards and was going to do some major stoozing.

Yep I literally just ordered this and arrived today only to get that email warning yesterday

SnowTiger wrote: »

There are also at least three building societies that accept deposits by debit card. It was possible to deposit money in to them using a Curve card linked to a credit card.

It was also possible to pay a credit card bill with Curve, therefore effectively transferring a balance from one card to another and earn cashback if the underlying card offered it.

Would these two options definitely now incur fees though? - Or is it a guessing game ?

I'm finding this confusing.

I'm swallowing/accepting the drop in charge-free facility this past week of the cash withdrawal from my cashback credit card with my curve black card with enhanced limit and in-store cashback. It was only £60 per month out of the £200 per month limit I used on average, but if as you're advised on sites like these, to maximise your cashback, especially when you paid off in full every month, that's what you did. Now, I just have to flick in-app to my debit account to withdraw cash with less cashback overall obviously.

Apart from that, and also importantly, what I gather from the new T&C's, whether you have a Starling, Monzo or Tandem card (E.g) and you change the currency, you'll get charged at weekends from today abroad. And it's going up in November too.

It was up to £200 per month cash and unlimited transactions regardless of whether it was week-day or weekend beforehand. It's now £400 per month cash for Black Card holders from today with the following caveats:

I've cut and pasted the section near the bottom of the new full T's & C's:

https://www.imaginecurve.com/terms

Currency Conversion Fees
Standard Exchange Rate
Curve (free) Curve Black
Spend Up to a spend of £500 per month - no currency conversion fees will be charged and the transaction will be made at the Standard Exchange Rate, if there is any spend beyond this Curve may charge 1% of the transaction amount From 19th November 2018: After the £500 per month, we will charge 2% of the amount of the transaction over the Standard Exchange Rate as currency conversion fees Unlimited fee free currency conversion (subject to fair use of £15,000, beyond which we may charge 2% of the amount of the transaction over the Standard Exchange Rate as currency conversion fees, after 19th November, 2018)
ATM Withdrawal Up to a spend of £200 per month - no currency conversion fees will be charged and the transaction will be made at the Standard Exchange Rate, if there are any withdrawals beyond this Curve may charge 1% of the transaction amount Applicable as of 19th November 2018: Beyond the £200 per month, we will charge 2% of the amount of the transaction or £2 (whichever is higher) over the Standard Exchange Rate as currency conversion fees. Up to a spend of £400 per month - no currency conversion fees will be charged and the transaction will be made at the Standard Exchange Rate, if there are any withdrawals beyond this Curve may charge 1% of the transaction amount Applicable as of 19th November 2018: Beyond the £400 per month, we will charge 2% of the amount of the transaction or £2 (whichever is higher) over the Standard Exchange Rate as currency conversion fees.
Weekend Exchange Rate (applicable from 19th November, 2018)
Curve (free) Curve Black
Spend and ATM Withdrawal Over and above Standard Exchange Rate and applicable spend cap, we will charge 0.5% for transactions made in GBP, EUR and USD (as applicable) and 1.5% for all other supported currencies on. In case of withdrawals or purchases over the weekend with an underlying card of a different currency of the spend, as the Forex markets are closed, we take the rate of Friday at 23:59 and apply a surcharge. If both the currency of your spend and the currency of the underlying card are GBP, USD or EUR, the rate will be increased by 0.5%. In any other case, that is If either the currency of your spend or the currency of the underlying card is any our other supported currencies, the rate will be increased by up to 1.5% (before 18th of November this rate increase will be up to 1%).
* Fees stated are maximum chargeable fees. Reduced fees may charged in selected circumstances.

I got an email from Curve about the changes last night after posting this and they added/included the phrase "...and are not in the same currency" regarding surcharges. I hope they update/amend their new T&C's to say the same as this makes a big difference regarding card use at weekends going forward.

I think I'll email them back for confirmation. It's contradictory and unclear.

*Update*

I contacted them on their Facebook Page under their post about it five days ago and just got this somewhat terse reply:

"Curve: You will not be charged when spending in the same currency as your underlying payment card currency. The weekend charge refers to when there's a currency exchange. Does that answer your question?"

The email that I just received regarding the change of T&C.
Apparently no longer charges foreign transaction fees on purchase and ATM withdrawals abroad. Subject to £200 a month.

Subject that cash withdrawal within the limit, it seems any Debit Card linked to this curve could be converted to become a specialist debit card for foreign currency withdrawal abroad.


"Hi XXXX

We’ve made some changes to our Terms of Service to reflect the introduction of fee-free spending abroad. The purpose of this email is to tell you what the main changes are and how they affect you. You can find the full updated Terms of Service here and in your Curve app.

What has changed?

Until today, Curve charged a 1% foreign transaction fee for spending abroad. Since 20th September 2018 at 9am GMT, Curve no longer charges foreign transaction fees on spend and ATM withdrawals abroad, subject to our terms of service.

You can now make purchases in foreign currency converted at the real exchange rate i.e. the rate at which banks exchange money, also called the interbank rate or mid-market rate. There are certain limits on the total amount of fee free transactions or ATM withdrawals, after which a fee will apply.

Please note, if the currency of your transaction and the currency of the underlying payment card used with Curve is the same, Curve will always pass through the transaction with no additional fees.

Foreign transaction charges until 19th November:

For the next 60 days, our fees and spending caps will be:

Curve Blue (free product): 0% fee on spend in over 150+ foreign currencies worldwide of up to £500 per rolling month, with a 1% rate surcharge after that. ATM withdrawals are free up to £200 per rolling month, after which there will be a charge per withdrawal of £2 or 1%, whichever is higher.

If you are a frequent traveller, our Curve Black product might be better suited to you:

Curve Black: 0% fee on spend in over 150+ foreign currencies worldwide (subject to fair use policies above £15,000 per rolling year). ATM withdrawals are free up to £400 per rolling month, after which there will be a charge per withdrawal of £2 or 1%, whichever is higher.

Weekend rates: In case of withdrawals or purchases over the weekend using an underlying payment card set to a different currency than the transaction, we will use the rate from Friday at 23:59 GMT and apply a surcharge (due to reduced market participation). For transactions where both the transaction and the underlying payment cards are in GBP, USD or EUR and are not in the same currency, the surcharge will be 0.5%. For all other currencies, the surcharge will be 1%.

Foreign transaction charges from 19th November:

In 60 days time, we will introduce the following updates:

Curve Blue (free product): 0% fee on spend in over 150+ foreign currencies worldwide of up to £500 per rolling month, with a 2% rate surcharge after that (before 19th of November this surcharge will be 1%). ATM withdrawals are free up to £200 per rolling month, after which there will be a charge per withdrawal of £2 or 2%, whichever is higher.

Curve Black: 0% fee on spend in over 150+ foreign currencies worldwide (subject to fair use policies above £15,000 per rolling year). ATM withdrawals are free up to £400 per rolling month, after which there will be a charge per withdrawal of £2 or 2%, whichever is higher.

Weekend rates: In case of withdrawals or purchases over the weekend using an underlying payment card set to a different currency than the transaction, we will use the rate from Friday at 23:59 GMT and apply a surcharge (due to reduced market participation). For transactions where both the transaction and the underlying payment cards are in GBP, USD or EUR and are not in the same currency, the surcharge will be 0.5%. For all other currencies, the surcharge will be 1.5%.

What do I need to do?

If you're happy with the updates to our Terms of Service, you do not need to do anything. If you are not happy with the updates, you have the right to terminate the agreement with us and close your account without charge at any time before November 19th, 2018. If we don't hear from you by then, we will take this to mean you have accepted the updates. If you have any questions, please contact us at support@imaginecurve.com.

For more information, please read our launch blog post or our full Terms of Service.
Best wishes,
Team Curve