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Supercard announces full launch in the Summer – how does it compare with Curve?

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Supercard, the Travelex-backed foreign currency payment card, has emailed its beta users – a large % of whom were recruited via Head for Points – to say that the scheme is finally going to open up to the public.

(EDIT:  Curve has changed a lot since this article was published.  Please do not rely on the information here.  Instead, please click here to read our detailed 2020 Curve review, which includes a link for a free £10 credit when you sign up.)

I was expecting some sort of announcement from Supercard after the Curve launch.  I am a little surprised by the timing though.

All existing Supercards will stop working on 6th June.  Beta testers and other people who have an expressed an interest will be invited to reapply for a new card later in the Summer – no date given.

Supercard

I covered Supercard a lot last year.  I have been very quiet about it since, as the beta was not accepting new users, so it is worth a recap of the product.

Like Curve, Supercard is a plastic credit-type card which does not have a credit limit of its own.  Instead, any transaction you make with the Supercard is recharged to a different Visa or Mastercard you own.  There is an app to manage your linked cards and transactions.

This sounds very similar to the Curve card which I wrote about last month and which is due to ship to the first 10,000 users later in March.

The two products are different in some key ways:

Curve has a one-off £35 fee for the basic version, offset by a £10 credit on your first transaction if you are referred by an existing cardholder, whilst Supercard is free.  Curve will have a loyalty programme for users but there are no details yet.

Curve can recharge any Mastercard transaction to an American Express, Visa or Mastercard.  Supercard can only recharge to a Visa or MasterCard.  This means that Curve is the only option if you want to bulk up your Amex spend at non-Amex retailers.

Curve has a 1% fee when used outside the UK.   Supercard has no foreign exchange fee.

Curve can be used in the UK.  It can even be used to withdraw cash from UK ATMs and recharge the withdrawal as a purchase to your American Express card.  Supercard is not meant to be used in the UK.  During the beta process people have been doing it – and Supercard has not, I believe, been imposing the threatened 50p per transaction fine – but I would expect this rule to be applied more firmly when the full roll-out takes place.

The lines are now clearly drawn:

Supercard will be the preferred option for people who want no card fee and want to avoid all foreign exchange fees when spending abroad

Curve will be the preferred option for people who are concerned about reward points (the 1% is likely to be worth paying in return for the rewards offered on a linked Amex card), who need to build up spend on their Amex card to hit a bonus or spend target or who do a lot of UK spending at merchants who do not take American Express.

Of course, as there is likely to be a five month gap between Curve shipping (late March) and Supercard shipping (probably August, after your Summer holiday), you need to factor that in as well.

You can find full details on Curve – and my £10 referral code – in this HfP article from last month.  You can more information on Supercard in this article.

If you want to pre-register interest for Supercard, you can do so here.

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Comments (115)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ziggy says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:32

    Am I reading this right? You can use Curve to withdraw cash at a cash point and it gets recharged to a credit card as a purchase? Fee free?
    If that’s all the case isn’t this ripe for abuse by those manufacturing spend?

    • Rob says:
      10 Mar10 March 06:42

      You read it correctly. And it works (I have a card already).

    • James says:
      10 Mar10 March 06:44

      No. They have a fair use policy which will obviously restrict you heavily at first, and I dare say they will take a view after a few months/year as to how much abuse they will take. If you are spending a fortune through the card and earning them a comparative fortune in the process they’ll probably turn a blind eye in comparison to someone who spends a grand a month through the card yet wants £500 a month cash.

      • Sandgrounder says:
        10 Mar10 March 06:56

        Don’t forget Curve is a business product and can only be used for business purposes. One situation in which they might ask for evidence of this is probably that of the £1000s a week ATM abuser!

    • Genghis says:
      10 Mar10 March 07:52

      It’s ripe

  • sam wardill says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:01

    I find it only works at ATMs 50% of the time. The app is really buggy. I had fraud on mine and had to get a replacement . They didn’t have a process to handle replacement. I don’t know the cause of the fraud (the card never left me and fraudulent tx was online). I don’t think they are ready for a launch. The idea of cancelling for pilot customer seems ridiculous. This Tuxedo crowd don’t really seem to have a clue!

    • Tom H says:
      10 Mar10 March 07:11

      This is almost identical to my experience, had fraudulent transactions appear from the US, whilst being in Mexico and not travelling upto USA. To be fair they refunded the money quickly, but the replacement supercard never worked and would update online but never on the aps despite delete and reinstall

  • Martin says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:12

    Nice one Raffles, jury’s still out Curve yes, Supercard ? (Lloyds Avios abroad so not as important)

  • Alex says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:18

    I have given up on supercard I travel to dubai a lot and it works for a day or two and then stops all together!
    This has happened 6 or 7 times, and when I return customer service don’t know why and are extremely unhelpful.
    I will be taking curve instead just hope it works better.

    • Graham Walsh says:
      14 Mar14 March 20:05

      I’m in Dubai at present and it is failing on me non stop. I also tried to withdraw cash and it failed (tried twice) but checked my transactions and I’ve been charged taking money out. Also train tickets shown twice. Not impressed!!!

  • Kevin says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:31

    Leo mentioned that with Supercard you can pay your tax/VAT without paying the CC fee – which “knocks out” Curve.
    Could someone clarify this pls. Is it only with Supercard where you can avoid paying the ludicrous charges (1.5%?) levied by HMRC for paying in this way?

    • Nick Burch says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:00

      I theory, UK / GBP transactions on the Supercard are subject to a 50p surcharge, but generally they haven’t applied that in the beta. To HMRC, Supercard looks like a debit card, so they accept it without the 1.5% credit card levy.

      • Alan says:
        10 Mar10 March 09:37

        Do they apply the UK ATM £2 surcharge consistently or do they not charge it either? Even with the charge it would be almost worth it for a bmi Mastercard and a £250 withdrawal.

        Being treated as a debit card can definitely be handy, used it to pay for parking on my credit card via them (and no 50p fee!)

        • Peter says:
          11 Mar11 March 16:18

          I just tried this out this afternoon — £200 withdrawal from a linked credit card worked fine, and it’s currently showing up with “Domestic Transaction Fee £0.00” in the app, although it is listed as a “Pending Cash Withdrawal”.

          I shan’t make a habit of doing this, but useful to know anyway for the next couple weeks until my Curve arrives.

          • Alan says:
            13 Mar13 March 16:28

            Thanks, Peter – interesting, will have a look when I get home. I’ve been using it this weekend in Poland, linked to my bmi Mastercard, and it has worked flawlessly for ATM withdrawals here 🙂

    • Rob says:
      10 Mar10 March 12:13

      Haven’t tried using Curve for taxes yet. Did not use Supercard for it as technically against the rules.

    • RIccati says:
      10 Mar10 March 20:03

      Both Supercard and Curve are pre-paid Debit Cards and should work.

  • Genghis says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:56

    I think it’s worth saying that the Curve card probably shouldn’t be used for all non-Amex purchases as it will offer no S75 protection and potentially not on flights / hotels for those with Amex Plat travel insurance.

    • RIccati says:
      10 Mar10 March 20:02

      This is valid, but the major gap is Accorhotels hotels that insist on charging Mastercard/Visa online (while on site they accept AMEX). Otherwise, other chains and Hotels.com accept AMEX fine.

      For AMEX insurance to work, only need to charge some of the journey to the card — typically the flights.

    • RIccati says:
      10 Mar10 March 20:06

      Curve would also be good for those food/eating out purchases abroad, where they typically don’t take AMEX (in Europe, Asia). Not going need S75 protection for these.

      Supermarkets and major retail stores do accept AMEX direct.

      • Genghis says:
        10 Mar10 March 20:50

        Indeed. You’d be buying an expensive meal / food to have S75 protection anyway (where the individual item costs >£100).

  • James W says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:11

    Now has anyone thought or weather it’s possible using Supercard to then recharge to the Curve MasterCard you get that in turns recharges to the AMEX?

    Would this work with 0 fee?

    • John says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:21

      Supercard transaction latency needs to be <3 seconds, don't know if that will work, especially if you're on the other side of the world. Also someone said that supercard doesn't accept prepaid cards (which Curve would be classified as).

  • Mikeact says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:16

    I don’t see a problem, my Supercard has clocked up 110 days overseas use,with only one….retailer problem,due to a heavy electrical storm going on at the time but resolved quickly.
    I shall continue to take the flexibility of Supercard, Curve, Lloyds Amex ,Clarity, Caxtonfx on future trips, a well as my regular debit card, just in case.

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