Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Curve card ‘pauses’ Amex functionality

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

(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.)

Let’s keep Curve discussion here, please, to stop other threads getting clogged up.

I will do an analysis on this tomorrow.  My gut feeling in the short term is that – assuming you can easily spend £1,000 on Curve in the next three months (and £600 of that can be free ATM withdrawals linked to a Mastercard or Visa, earning points) – you might as well do that.

You will get the £35 credit, which if you have the basic card means you are in the same financial position as taking a refund, and you still have the Curve card for overseas use (if you don’t have a 0% card) and ATM use and for places where it is treated as a debit card.

Curve prepaid MasterCard

And, of course, if you take a refund you would need to pay £35 again later if / when Amex functionality returns. If you have the premium version, the maths is different and you may find the full refund better than a £50 credit.

It is always fun and games working with start-ups ….

The email:

I’m Shachar, the CEO of Curve. Today we’ve got some disappointing news. American Express have asked us to pause their functionality with Curve – which means you will not be able to use your Curve card with your Amex for the time being. This begins at midday on May 31st UK time – you’ll shortly receive another email with practical details of what will happen when we pause the American Express functionality – your Curve will continue to work with Mastercard and Visa.

American Express want to ensure there is a seamless customer support process for their Members when using their Card with Curve. We’re continuing discussions with their management, and hope that American Express decide to come back to Curve soon.

We’re continuing to build something big at Curve. The first ever platform to connect you to your everything money – transforming the way you handle your finances, bringing value and saving you time and money. We’re already connecting up all your bank cards, tracking your expenses in real time and saving you money with zero FX fees when you travel. This is just the beginning – we’re working hard on future features such as the ability to move charges between funding cards after you’ve paid, bespoke loyalty rewards and cash-backs, peer-to peer payments and much more.

As a big thank you for being one of Curve’s early adopters we are giving Blue card members £35 and Black card members £50 worth of Curve Points if you spend a total of £1000 over the next three months. You’ll be able to spend your Curve Points at any merchant that accepts Mastercard using your Curve. Please see our FAQs for further details.

We hope you choose to stay with us to continue the exciting journey we’ve begun together. Please write to me directly – I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

I’ll keep you updated.

Yours,

Shachar Bialick

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (437)

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

  • David Butcher says:
    24 May24 May 10:02

    Without Amex on board, this is a dead duck for me.
    I guess it proves the old adage about when something seems too good to be true……
    I’m out!

  • CD says:
    24 May24 May 10:02

    First off I want to say that I think your website is great Raffles. (And here comes the but) your coverage of the Curve Card has been lacking – you initially reported that the £200 ATM limit would only be applied to people applying after the announce date (which turned out not to be true).

    Then with this. Why should we value “curve points”? As others have pointed out, what happens if Curve folds? Or the points are illiquid?

    I appreciate that this is “caveat emptor” – and the words “beta” were a decent indication. However, I’m also sure that a lot of us took out the card on your personal recommendation.

    • James A says:
      24 May24 May 10:08

      I don’t regret taking it out, I got a bunch of extra miles through some large purchases with non Amex companies. The rest was just gravy.

    • JamesWag says:
      24 May24 May 10:25

      Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa !!
      I knew what I was signing up for – a beta with moving goal posts.

    • JamesWag says:
      24 May24 May 10:27

      This pause could genuinely just be to sort out the billing issues with Amex and then it could be back as-is. Its a gamble holding on but not a dead cert that the whole thing’s knackered.

    • the_real_a says:
      24 May24 May 10:35

      Not sure i agree. Raffles was making a legal point that 2 months contractual notice was a requirement by the FSA. The adherence to this by Curve is clearly out of his control.

      I was bewildered that idiots turned up here daily and posted their intention to the bleed the card dry when it was clear that ATM transaction were a loss leader for the card. Since this site was the the major referrer – do people really think that curve would not read it? This was never the intention of the CURVE card. Common sense from all is required i think.

      • JamesWag says:
        24 May24 May 12:01

        Yeah as I was reading those posts I could feel the benefits dropping away 🙂
        Pointing out loopholes and big points earning oversights before the service even launched helped Curve dodge some costly mistakes.

        Didn’t

    • James R says:
      24 May24 May 11:02

      I think comment is pretty unfair. Yes, I took out the card because I read about it here on HFP, but did Raffles make me buy the card? No.
      Did I assume that Raffles was trying to sell me the card? No.
      Raffles was reporting on a new card that could help people, that’s all.
      Sure, some info turned out to be different later, but a raft of other features have been changed since Curve was initially posted here because Curve changed them; not Raffles.
      With as much info as we have those questions shouldn’t be directed to Raffles, but to Curve.

      • CD says:
        24 May24 May 17:12

        Yeah, however there have been other forums where Raffles has quashed rumours of Curve dropping AmEx a couple of weeks ago. Rumours that turned out to be prescient…

        Whatever, it’s a £75 loss, but Raffles has still promoted this card, and I don’t think you could argue otherwise. Not trying to pass on the responsibility, but merely making the comment that my faith in the advice given here has been shaken a little. Otherwise HfP is a very good website, and I wouldn’t deny that.

        I don’t think the comment is unfair at all – he made a significant sum off his readers who mostly used his affiliate link I imagine.

        • Alan says:
          24 May24 May 17:18

          Interesting view. I don’t feel it has been promoted at all – discussed and explained, but not promoted. It is clearly up to the reader to decide when parting with cash if they feel it is a good deal or not. Given the refunds being offered it’s not like folk aren’t able to get their cash back anyway.

          With regards referrals, well none of them have been paid out yet (we don’t know yet if they ever will be) so I don’t see how Rob as benefited in that regard.

          Personally I signed up but it was put on hold when the Android app kept getting pushed back. It’ll be interesting to see how Supercard position themselves at relaunch, I’ve found it has been working well and without Amex I don’t see what Curve offers that is better than it (assuming they don’t markedly change it for the relaunch)

        • Rob says:
          24 May24 May 17:54

          As mentioned elsewhere, the original Curve article had no links and I let readers put their own links at the bottom! (It has them now but they were added afterwards.)

          As I was on the Beta I did not originally get a link.

          And, of course, I haven’t been paid anything anyway ……

          Anyway, do let me know how you have lost out here on the basis that your £35 is coming back and you have been happily spending on the card for a few weeks ….?!

  • Maribel says:
    24 May24 May 10:03

    I have just cancelled mine too. AMEX was the main attraction for me and I doubt they will come back. Shame!

  • Simon says:
    24 May24 May 10:04

    How many people have signed up due to Raffles promotion of this joke card? I’m a big boy and certainly not moaning, Caveat Emptor, but Curve seems like a total scam. They will get a wave of refund requests now. Be amazed if they have the money to pay out.

    • Jeff says:
      24 May24 May 10:08

      I have earned an extra 10,000 or so Avios since I got my Curve, so I don’t feel scammed at all! I am very grateful to Raffles for mentioning the card which I hadn’t heard of before.

      • Matt says:
        24 May24 May 10:20

        How? You spent £10,000 on merchants that don’t accept Amex?

        • dp says:
          24 May24 May 10:33

          10,000 avios on the BAPP card would be £6666.66. I’m probably close to spending that amount since I’ve received the curve.

        • James R says:
          24 May24 May 11:08

          £2,500/mo would net you 6,250 Avios for the first six months of the Llyods Avios Rewards Amex.

    • krys_k says:
      24 May24 May 10:32

      Big difference between scam and business failure. And if youre not big enough to make a decision on getting a financial product on your own, you shouldn’t get it.

    • JamesWag says:
      24 May24 May 10:32

      Yeah, be bankrupt soon if they don’t get extra funding I expect. Cash is king !

      Sadly bailing on them now increases their chance of going bust through lack of cash flow but the longer you wait it out the higher the chance you get nothing back 🙁

      If you’ve already earned over £35 or £50 of MR points then you’re in a decent position.

    • JamesWag says:
      24 May24 May 10:37

      I’m not sure Raffles promoted it, just told us about it. Let’s also keep in mind it was always a beta, a new business and something most of us speculated would have to change to remain viable.
      Plus, if the pause is just that, a pause, this will go back to being a superb offering.

  • Joel says:
    24 May24 May 10:05

    Is it 0% or 1% fx fees??!?

    Worth keeping it for the downtime of supercard?

    • Graeme says:
      24 May24 May 11:12

      But only for £200 a month of cash abroad. Nice for purchases, but pointless really for me.

  • Jeff says:
    24 May24 May 10:06

    A sad day, but it did seem to be too good to be true! Despite all the glitches, it was very useful and did work for most of the time. I am going to keep mine just in case they get the Amex link back. There must be some attraction for Amex in the incremental revenues on transactions that otherwise couldn’t go to Amex; it doesn’t in any way compete with Amex. I wonder if there has been some pressure to stop the effective bypassing of Mastercard & Visa.

    There was always likely to be an issue once the obligation to honour all types a particular type of card comes in to force next month which could block prepaid cards which Curve technically is.

  • Patrick says:
    24 May24 May 10:07

    unfortunately with Amex out I have no use for this card as have a clarity card as well. I will be requesting a refund.

    It’s a shame but you know what they say when somethings too good to be true.

  • Percy Pig says:
    24 May24 May 10:07

    The fact that the email from the CEO trying desperately to get people to stay incorrectly states there are 0% FX fees, when in fact it’s 1% (a change that annoyed people at the time) is pretty poor.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      24 May24 May 10:12

      From what I can tell, Curve’s argument is that it’s a 0% fee but the rate is ‘MasterCard wholesale exchange rate plus 1%’.

      Make of that what you will.

    • JamesWag says:
      24 May24 May 12:04

      I’m happy if the CEO is going to stand by his 0% claim and refund me all of my fx transaction fees.

    • Callum says:
      24 May24 May 13:10

      What change? It’s always been 1% (during the public beta/launch anyway).

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!