Curve Card technique - withdraw cash on any credit card with no fee

From my knowledge of banking (which is a few years old as I've had a career break!) my understanding is that MCC is used by card providers to block/approve transactions - e.g. Gambling

I also believe any MCCs related to "financial services" can be picked up to then charge cash fees - for example similar to how Tesco dealt with Curve (they've decided MCC 8999 "other professional services" = financial/cash, primiarily because I bet the main/only merchant of 8999 was Curve!).

Although it looked like they were charging Curve users, I'd imagine it was done based on the MCC NOT based on CRV* on the statement (e.g. Merchant Name). Otherwise Curve could simply change their Merchant name every 20 seconds to get around it, or stop putting CRV*

IF MCC being passed does affect charges etc, it'll be very much on a provider by provider basis (e.g. Lloyds Banking Group may treat MCC 6012 (Financial Institution) as a cash advance but HSBC may not). It would also depend on the merchant's MCC - e.g. paying Lloyds off with a 'debit' card may be MCC 6012, paying HSBC off with a debit card may be something completely different. So as much as Curve are annoying by this change, I could understand their reluctence to confirm either way. It'll be a bit of trial and error and keeping a spreadsheet of merchant you used (e.g. who you paid) and the card you paid with - spot patterns etc - trial and error as above, but that could be costly if you make a big one that's on the 'error' category!

Some card issuers (e.g. Barclaycard) allow you to see whether it's treated as Cash or Purchase. So you could try a small payment with Curve and check your transactions. I haven't got a Barclaycard anymore, so unsure whether you need to wait for it to go to approved or whether pending will show you the details. I think it's the latter.

Annoyingly my main provider doesn't show MCC or whether it's cash or not. Today I made a small test Payment (using that card to pay itself) and my available balance has decreased by the exact amount, not the additional fees I'd expect.

I'll leave it to go to posted and see if any cash fees appear!! My friend took out cash abroad on a Virgin card and the forex and cash fees only appeared after it was posted, not in real time.

Will be good to see if anyone gets any sense out of Curve though, I'm reluctent to send £500 through just incase I get charged 3% cash fee or whatever!!

How are curve displaying transactions in their app?

Is the topup above showing in the app as "Customer Financial Institution" or similar? Mine all say Business Services still

I think if they're going to bang on about the transparency on underlying cards, they need to let us know what it's being processed as on their own app (MCC, descriptions etc). It wouldn't affect underlying cards, but would allow for people to make a judgement call.

I've also just thought I've got an Asda Start card, although 0.2% cashback is pants, it's added up as I've been paying other cards etc. My cash limit is still at 0, so I presume (!) cash transactions will be blocked... that'll assist me!