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An update on Curve – you receive £10 credit when you are referred

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(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.)

On Thursday I ran a long article about Curve.  This was, I think, the most-read article ever on HfP – it was certainly the most-read article on the day of publication.

Curve has a number of fascinating features.  Most relevant for our market, it allows you to pay for anything where a Mastercard is accepted and have it recharged – as a purchase – to an American Express card.

Even cash withdrawals are recharged, as a purchase, to your Amex.  I have been testing the card for a few days and I can confirm that this works perfectly.

Curve prepaid MasterCard

Let me repeat this bit – you can buy something using the Curve card at a retailer which only accepts Mastercard, or even make a cash withdrawal at an ATM, and it will be re-charged to your American Express card (or a Visa or Mastercard) as a purchase.  It will earn miles and count towards any sign-up bonus.  It also works abroad, even on overseas cash withdrawals.

I have been taking part in the Curve pilot programme and I can confirm that the card does everything that it says.

The cost of the basic Curve card is £35.  There is a £75 premium version but I don’t know enough about the benefits to recommend it at this time.  This is a one-off fee, not an annual one.

What I didn’t know on Thursday is that, if you used my referral link to apply, you will receive a £10 credit into your Curve account.  This means that the net cost of joining up is only £25 and not £35.  The £10 is credited once you make the first transaction on your card.

If you haven’t signed up and are still interested, you will find full details and my referral details in the article from Thursday.

My referral code, if it doesn’t track automatically, is oqb4J.  It is a letter and not a zero at the start.

Note that Curve is targetted at the business market and you should have some sort of freelance / self-employed / SME income or involvement (although not necessarily full-time) in order to apply.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

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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.

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British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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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:

American Express Business Platinum

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American Express Business Gold

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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Capital on Tap Visa

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British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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Category

General

Comments (116)

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

  • Kez says:
    20 Feb20 February 08:21

    FFS!

  • Andrew says:
    20 Feb20 February 08:27

    Other side benefit, for those of us with other halves who despair of the constant card switching to hit bonuses… Get a curve and then you direct the card it goes to, and they get to use the same card all the time! 🙂

    • Worzel says:
      20 Feb20 February 08:46

      Good point Andrew-it would alleviate the “Now…., what card do I have to take today” issue.

      However, I foresee this:

      “GUMMIDGE”!! “Why am I no longer receiving the usual John Lewis gift vouchers” !

      “Erm….Mmmm…I’m not sure Darling…perhaps the reward scheme has changed” ?

      🙂 .

  • Maribel says:
    20 Feb20 February 09:00

    Nice one Rob!

  • Barry cutters says:
    20 Feb20 February 09:12

    Really off topic but just to let anyone know who has an we contract, for a £3 charge they let you pay your bill by credit card. It’s a one off fee as its per transaction , not per bill. They accept Amex, so I’ve just paid £420in one hit to cover the first year of my new iphone6 contract.

  • Don says:
    20 Feb20 February 09:14

    Hopefully it’s £65 not £75 for those who find Black a more reassuring colour.

    • joe says:
      20 Feb20 February 15:03

      True that. Don’t like the colour of any card that’s not black. Even my Nandos card is black….

  • leo_c says:
    20 Feb20 February 09:32

    Caxton Fx and Curve
    Rob I presume you can load Caxtonfx onto curve too..this makes it easier taking even fewer cards abroad.
    I have been a fan of Caxton for years , as the convenience of switching currencies is obvious without transaction fees and ATM fees. In the past you were at the mercy of VISA /Mastercard exchange rates when using a credit card. I realise several cards have abolished charges abroad now including Curve.
    I have not done the number crunching..but unless curve introduce fees it could replace my caxton!!! The market is evolving at such a pace..its hard to keep track. I know my wife will not want to keep changing cards, so as Andrew says, the curve at one stroke can solve a lot of messing about and capitalise on whatever reward scheme you have chosen.

    • Callum says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:10

      It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to link a Caxton card to this- even if it was possible, which it probably isn’t.

  • Tilly71 says:
    20 Feb20 February 09:54

    Any news on when they will launch an Android app version?

    • Alan says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:06

      They were quoting ‘summer’. Had a good look yesterday evening at options – have got OS X running fine on my Win 10 PC via VMware, however although you can get an iOS simulator then via Xcode, this unfortunately won’t let you install apps from the store, only ones you have the source code for and can recompile for the x86 (vs ARM) architecture 🙁 Looks like the only option might be a cheap second-hand iOS device from eBay/Gumtree (perhaps one that has some damage?!) – need to make sure it can run a recent version of iOS though for the Curve app to work.

      • Dom says:
        20 Feb20 February 10:57

        If you only need to setup card links, my plan is just to borrow Iphone off a mate when needed.

  • peter says:
    20 Feb20 February 09:56

    would applying for this be seen as another source of credit on your file? my score has been lowered since i opened a bank account with no overdraft recently and dont want it to get much lower.

    • Alan says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:03

      Nope, it’s just using your existing cards so no new credit source

    • Callum says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:14

      Opening a bank account with no overdraft does not reduce your credit worthiness – regardless of what an utterly meaningless number assigned to you says.

      There’s a reason why no lender EVER says the credit score they’re looking for in the application info – they can’t see it, and more importantly, they don’t care what it says!

    • Genghis says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:17

      As already said, Curve card is not a credit product due to having to link to underlying existing cards. My understanding (and I’m not a retail banker) is that having a current account even with no overdraft but having a linked debit card is treated as a credit product (and therefore subject to credit checks) due to offline debit card system. Ie when you use your debit card to make a purchase, funds aren’t necessarily requested straight away and hence there is a credit line.

      • peter says:
        20 Feb20 February 11:41

        thanks, thats cleared it up…ive closed the account already now. ill apply fr one of these with robs code

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

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