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

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• Matt says:

  20 Feb20 February 10:15

  Question: What is the lowest spec iOS device that the Curve app will work on?

  You need an iOS device to get this to work, and my house and others are iOS free (all Android/Linux/Windows). There are possible security issues with loading someone else’s iOS device with your card details, plus you have no ability to see transactions report without iOS.

  So an alternative solution for me, and others, would be to use an old iPhone/iPad from ebay etc.

  • Mark B says:

    20 Feb20 February 10:27

    Installing the app worked for me on an iphone 4s

    • Mark says:

      20 Feb20 February 19:25

      Yes, the oldest iPhone which will run iOS 8 is the 4S which seems to be the cheapest option for anyone who decides to go down the buy something on eBay route. From about £40-50 for a fully working device, less for something with significant damage.

      TBH that’s a cost too far to make it really worthwhile for me but I used a referral code from a friend who has Apple Devices so I’m hoping he will be able to help 🙂

      • harry says:

        20 Feb20 February 19:31

        You could buy an iPad from Tesco Direct, get 2000 clubcard points, use it to do the necessary – then return it for a full refund (14 days on these devices ISTR, not 30).

        They forget to remove your points if you return it in store.

  • blenz10 says:

    20 Feb20 February 11:09

    Cheaper option may be a second hand iPod touch which also runs iOS as you don’t actually need the cellular functions which command such a premium.

    Other alternative would be iPhones with cracked screens via eBay.

    • Alan says:

      20 Feb20 February 11:14

      Indeed, I think you just need to make sure it runs iOS 8.

    • Mark says:

      20 Feb20 February 19:26

      Needs a 5th generation iPod touch though, which are selling for more than an iPhone 4S.

• Deanne says:

  20 Feb20 February 10:21

  My husband doesn’t want to apply for a Curve card as he is worried about the security of someone having his Amex number. Any comments on this?

  • mark2 says:

    20 Feb20 February 10:58

    what else do they ask for; four digit number perhaps?
    Amazon have card number and expiry date, but I would not give mine to this size of company.

    • Fredo Frog says:

      20 Feb20 February 13:02

      If Amex are accepting Curve surely they are more than happy with the securuty setup?

      • mark2 says:

        20 Feb20 February 13:38

        Is it their problem?

• Barry cutters says:

  20 Feb20 February 10:27

  But people can surely work it out themselves that once they are signed up they can refer people. Goes without saying doesn’t it?
  I see No Lack of transparency at all

• Simon Schus says:

  20 Feb20 February 10:54

  Is anybody else receiving an error when they try to confirm their credit cards on the Curve app? I get a “Core Exception: OOOPS” error in what looks like a webpage wrapper.

• Jamie says:

  20 Feb20 February 12:02

  the news of this card is very welcome. I would ask, though, how is the company going to make any money? If Amex charges retailers 5%, and MasterCard 1-2%, then surely Amex will be charging Curve. So, have curve just negotiated a ridiculous rate with Amex?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    20 Feb20 February 12:16

    Been answered a few times

    expecting large volume of ‘sales’ so would have negotiated wholesale interchange fees not your small retailer ones

    Also business transactions can be charged at a higher rate than personal but they are banking on the registered amex/mastercard et al to be a personal one so they make money there. Also they will be hoping many people using this as a cheaper alternative abroad where they charge you 1%+£2 for ATM withdrawals vs most cards charging 3% + can withdraw fees of £4-5

    example on a holiday last year towards the end of my holiday I lost my Halifax clarity and using my lloyds debit card to withdraw enough cash to tide me over was daylight robbery, would have happily paid the 1%+£2 instead!

  • Rob says:

    20 Feb20 February 16:05

    Curve is a business card so has a high fee to shops. It mainly recharges personal Visa or MC cards which have fees capped at 0.3%. Even Amex fees may be under 1.5%.

    • Chris says:

      21 Feb21 February 22:55

      Would a shop owner know this is a business card thst will cost them more to process?

      Seems a little unfair.

• Dave says:

  20 Feb20 February 12:11

  OT – 4000 Tesco pet insurance points have now appeared in my a/c – poor tiddles

• Mark says:

  20 Feb20 February 16:14

  OT: Does anyone know at what point you start earning towards a second Lloyds Avios Rewards upgrade voucher. Is it the anniversary of card issue?

  I understand that you can only earn one per year but the actual mechanics seem rather less clear, with the waters muddied further by Lloyds reference to ‘calendar years’.

  • Alan says:

    20 Feb20 February 16:16

    Agree they don’t make it clear but I’m going with anniversary of account opening from first statement.

    • Mycity says:

      20 Feb20 February 16:27

      I rang them up on this, I was told you earn towards your upgrade starting on the anniversary of account opening. However you can only earn one voucher in a calendar year and one voucher per membership year, they said for example if your membership year is June to May and you earned your voucher in say October, your spend between Oct and the following June wouldn’t count towards another voucher. Clear as mud? I think not.

      • Alan says:

        20 Feb20 February 17:04

        I don’t quite understand your reference to membership year, but if you mean that you opened the card in June, reached the target by October then yes I wouldn’t expect any spend between then and the following June to count as it is still in the same 12 month period. Everything would then reset the following June when you entered year 2 and you’d start earning towards another voucher. This is no different to the BA Amex (except of course it actually has a nice clear progress bar on each statement!). Given the way they block you receiving a second sign-up bonus it doesn’t sound like there’s any benefit to trying to close and reopen the account either.

        • Mycity says:

          20 Feb20 February 17:45

          I think there is a differance, You can earn and get if you want two 241 in a calendar year, with Lloyds you only get one upgrade voucher per calendar year.

        • Alan says:

          20 Feb20 February 17:58

          I don’t think so, I think they both only allow one voucher every 12 months but with both of them you can trigger that voucher as early or late in the 12 month earning period as you want, I think Lloyds have just made their wording really unclear?

      • Mark says:

        20 Feb20 February 17:32

        That’s a much clearer statement than I managed to get out of them. They kept wanting to put me through to avios.com despite my telling them they wouldn’t be able to answer the question….

        Eventually they kind of gave me the same answer but left me with zero confidence they actually had any clue as to whether or not it was correct.

        The only way to get much sense out of Lloyds seems to be to raise a formal complaint!

      • Mark says:

        20 Feb20 February 17:42

        The statement about only one voucher per membership year and only one per calendar year seems a bit odd. Does that mean if your membership year is Feb-Jan (as mine is) and you earnt a voucher in January 2016, that no further spend counts until January 2017 (which is almost the end of the next membership year!) or that the spend counts from February 2016 but they won’t issue another voucher until January 2017 regardless of your meeting the spend threshold earlier?

        Or are the call centre staff just totally confused themselves?

        • Alan says:

          20 Feb20 February 17:45

          They area clueless and as others have said will try to transfer you to Avios.com as soon as you mention the word Avios!

          It’s one every 12 months from the anniversary of account opening with the target resetting at that point too, they just confuse everything by referring to calendar year!

        • Mycity says:

          20 Feb20 February 17:58

          I’m not sure who knows the answer, i asked because the terms state calendar year hence the answer I got back. I did state to them as Marks says, there’s no point spending on the card once I’ve earned the voucher, they agreed and said that this membership (account opening year) is not in line with a calendar year it’s something that needs correcting.

          As we all know with the 241 they operate purely on the account opening

        • Alan says:

          20 Feb20 February 18:01

          I had some reps try to tell me it was calendar year – account open in March and had to spend by 31st Dec. Other reps disagreed (as did I) – hit my target late Jan and voucher issued this month. I’m expecting to start earning towards a new voucher next month when my new 12 month period starts, but will call and check with them again – thy really are pretty useless!

• cynicalmosoe says:

  20 Feb20 February 19:51

  Raffles –

  Presumably this changes the calculus on the Amex IDC cards a bit?

  • Alan says:

    20 Feb20 February 19:54

    Interesting point, although presumably they’ll charge in GBP so then won’t help? Although they had some comment re Euro cards where if you’ve got the ICC Euro card that might be of interest??

  • Rob says:

    20 Feb20 February 21:38

    I hadn’t really thought about that. The problem with the IDC cards, however, is that you still need to pay the card bill in $ so, unless you have a US$ bank account, you get hit with another set of charges there which Curve cannot help you with.

  • Mycity says:

    20 Feb20 February 23:15

    Can you explain this please? I’ve got an IDC and a US Bank account I’m missing something, I’d be happy to do a test on it

    • Rob says:

      21 Feb21 February 07:26

      IDC Amex cards are more generous – 1 point per dollar and 1:1 into some airlines, albeit BA is 3:2. Curve in theory will charge 1% FX fee putting a UK charge onto your IDC in dollars.

      Some articles on IDC if you search.

      • Mycity says:

        21 Feb21 February 07:34

        Thanks Raffles, so basically it’s adding your IDC to Curve, guess it also depends on the exchange rate as that can make a differance on points.

        • Rob says:

          21 Feb21 February 09:29

          Yes, which is why I won’t be doing this as I can’t make it stack up paying the bill from the UK.

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