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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.

  • Stu R says:
    10 Mar10 March 05:44

    I personally think that having to ‘reapply’ for the new card is a pile of c**p – there should be an ‘opt in/out’ email or similar, and provided you opt in, you should be sent a new card, simple as!

    It so happens I will be half way through our Italian summer holiday on 6th June – and suddenly my card will stop working. I’m starting to think that despite the extra cost, 1% to allow me to link to my BA Premium Amex to my Curve card when it arrives will be worthwhile, and Supercard can take a hike!

    Supercard have really dragged their feet with this launch and they may just miss the boat?

    • Tim says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:03

      My email from Supercard didn’t say anything about having to reapply. My reading was that I would be supplied with a replacement before the current one expires (although to be fair it didn’t actually say that explicitly). But there’s lots of time for that to be clarified.
      The big problem with Curve imho is the requirement for an iOS device. You’ll never catch me with an Apple!

      • TimS says:
        10 Mar10 March 09:31

        My email said “…But, fear not, you’ll be the first to know about how you can get your hands on a free new Supercard and we’ll be in touch again nearer the time with full details.”

        Definitely sounds to me like beta users need to re-apply in order to get a new card.

  • Peaceful Waters says:
    10 Mar10 March 05:49

    Timing is dreadful.

    I also expect to see changes to Supercard T&Cs that may not be favourable.

  • Leo says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:02

    My main liking for supercard is the ability to pay your tax and VAT and not pay any credit card fee. That alone knocks out curve for me. Let’s see if the ability to do this remains post full launch. I don’t care if they want to charge me 50p for the pleasure. I have taken up a curve card as well – to enable qualifying spend on AMEX if needed in the future. Currently using supercard in SE Asia. It’s been OK but my heart is always slightly in my mouth as to whether or not it goes through….

    • Jonathan says:
      10 Mar10 March 06:17

      Ive had it fail at retailers quite a bit, so have got into the habit of using it for foreign ATM transactions where it seems to behave itself better and then spend cash!

      • Graeme says:
        10 Mar10 March 08:40

        That’s exactly how I’ve learned to use it. It’s failed quiet a few times at retailers and since you’re withdrawing the cash anyway….

        • nerd. says:
          10 Mar10 March 11:13

          Unfortunately I’ve had it fail at both retailers and cash machines for no apparent reason. Reported to them and they went away to look into it but no response in weeks.

          • Nori says:
            10 Mar10 March 14:00

            Supercard with a few exceptions generally worked well on cash withdraws abroad. On a few occasions when I used it for Visa purchases it was fine too.

  • STEVEN says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:10

    I’m really looking forward to trying out Curve – almost seems too good to be true – especially with cash withdrawals.

    Now what I really need is a mechanism to earn points on my mortgage and car repayment!!

    • Jonathan says:
      10 Mar10 March 06:19

      Does anyone know if it’s possible to pay stamp duty via Amex? I have a huge bill coming up..

      • Genghis says:
        10 Mar10 March 07:59

        It depends. Last year we had to pay ours direct to our solicitor post completion. Would have been great to hit another 241 and then some in one hit.

      • JK says:
        10 Mar10 March 08:04

        I’d be surprised if your solicitor takes Amex…

        • Talay says:
          11 Mar11 March 09:33

          Mine does take credit cards for a 2% fee and as my Amex fees are 1.9% I suggested they also look into taking Amex as their charges would cover their costs.

    • Nori says:
      10 Mar10 March 14:03

      That’s what I was thinking to pay my mortgage with Curve – either direct as MasterCard purchase or withdrawing cash from ATM, albeit several times.

      • Nick M says:
        10 Mar10 March 14:47

        I know of a regular savings contract that will allow you to make contributions by Visa/Mastercard, but not aware of any lenders that will take payments!

  • Jonathan says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:15

    For foreign spend Supercard uses visa FX rates where spread is normally between 50-100bps off WMR.

    As I understand it curve is 100 bps fee, so I would have thought its reasonably competitive for foreign spend vs Supercard. Article suggests rates will always be worse which may not be the case from my understanding.

    • John says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:15

      I assume the Curve fee is actually 1%, not 100bps. Mastercard rate is usually but not always better than Visa, so you may be right that the Curve fee is negligible when comparing the two.

      The Visa rate for the next 24 hours appears at midnight CET on the website.

      From my investigations It usually appears to be around the lowest spot rate of the previous European trading session. If the currency in question has no remarkable data releases then it usually fluctuates around 100 bp, hence your observation. (Actually, if the spread is defined as the difference between spending USD on a GBP card and spending GBP on a USD card, it’s way higher than 100bp)

      The rate for Monday is the same as the rate for the previous Sunday and Saturday (I suppose EU bank holidays work similarly). If the GBP plummets on a Monday, well, the Visa rate was set on Friday night… I made over £200 (not even counting the points) out of Supercard in the past 2 weeks thanks to “Brexit speculation”.

      • Andy says:
        10 Mar10 March 10:53

        100bps = 1% no?

      • RIccati says:
        10 Mar10 March 19:57

        It does not work this way. The rate they publish is an indicative average rate for transactions on that date.

        Transactions are converted at the wholesale interbank rate at their time.

        And currency fluctuating 100bps=1% around the lowest rate of the day?? Makes no sense and if the spot moves 1% in GBPEUR or GBPUSD that’s a significant move. (Are you not confusing bps with pips or something).

  • RIccati says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:18

    I repeat the observation that Supercard is going to be behind the curve — waiting until August when a competition available with charging to AMEX and £30 one-off fee, phew!

    There are quite a view no fx fee Mastercards (Post Office, Halifax Clarity, Lloyds Avios) and some Visa Debit. To spend fee-free abroad is not a problem.

    The problem is when Accor website does not accept AMEX for some hotels (even though on site they do) or some UK utility/council charge for payment by credit card — for both cases Curve is the solution (while Supercard misses these two needs exactly — can’t be charged to Amex and can’t use in the UK).

  • Ross says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:21

    SuperCard had awful customer service and God forbid you ever had to get a refund from a merchant – I had to literally go up the ladder or command at Tuxedo (who operate the card).

    Couple that with their app constantly having issues. I cancelled my card weeks ago.

    I now use Revolut.

    • John says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:18

      I don’t understand the attraction of Revolut. Can you at least earn Tesco clubcard points for using their debit card?

      • Tom says:
        18 Mar18 March 06:05

        The attraction of Revolut for me is that you are able to store currency in either gbp/eur/usd and swap between the three using spot fx rates. So if you are going on holiday in Europe and have a particular view that the gbp will weaken against the euro between now and the time you go, you can buy your euros now and keep them on your Revolut account. You also get near-perfect fx rates – no fees etc.
        You could effectively do the same buy buying cash – but this is cleaner/easier and you get better rates.

        (You can also swap funds between the three currencies instantly in the app. So if your view on fx rates changes, you can move it around fee-free. It’s sort of a free trading account).

        You can also spend the money in lots of different currencies and it converts from the destination currency in to either your gbp/eur/usd funds, again at spot rates.

        The downside is that it is a pre-paid card so you have to load funds in to your account before spending, and it doesn’t contribute to your credit card spend like super card or curve do.

  • flibbly says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:23

    I haven’t rec’d an email from Supercard yet.

    Unless Supercard changes its terms considerably at the launch I shall be sticking with it. It makes far more sense for my spending patterns than Curve.

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

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