Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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

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.

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 (115)

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

  • sam wardill says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:19

    The timing of the trial end is really bad. The pound is really weak at mo so I’m not keen to withdraw any extra foreign cash to see me through. If Brexit referendum campaign unsuccessful pound is likely to recover but then my Supercard will be cancelled (and I suspect the non-pilot card may charge for cash withdrawals).

  • Alan says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:21

    At least Supercard had the decency to have an Android version of the app at launch!

    I don’t understand why they’re going down this route of making folk reapply rather than just opening up to new applications – it seems a guaranteed way of losing lots of existing customers to Curve!

    The zero fee to apply and zero fee on foreign transactions will definitely still have an appeal for folks and if putting transactions through on my bmi Mastercard it still makes sense for me to use it. I must say I’ve been using my Lloyds Amex more and more, £24 fee for better earning rate than Amex Plat, no forex fee and upgrade voucher at £7k is a pretty good deal for me. Curve will be definitely handy for using at retailers that don’t take Amex though,bas well as being able to do cash withdrawals here and abroad.

  • Richard says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:23

    Supercard is a great idea – but only if it works. My experience in the Caymans recently is that it is rejected about 50% of the time, and occasionally shows up on the App as having taken the payment twice (although this is rectified after a couple of days). I also find it irritating that the Supercard transactions on my Mastercard give no details of the original retailer, making it difficult to reconcile on the credit card bill. Against this, the savings on exchange rate when it works are considerable. The jury’s out…

  • Mark says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:26

    moneysavingexpert.com ran an analysis piece last May concluding that unloaded Visa rates were on average 0.6% worse than MasterCard for US dollar and euro transactions.

    In that context Curve with a 1% loading is not all that much worse for foreign currency purchases than Supercard and likely better once you take into account the ability to link to an Amex.

    As it happens with the changes to points earning opportunities as a result of the fee cap my preferred non-Amex cards (Halifax Clarity Rewards and Lloyds Avios Rewards) are now MasterCards with no exchange loading anyway.

    Consequently I’ve found I’m increasingly using it only for ATM withdrawals in any case. Will be interesting to see whether those remain fee free on the full launch…..

  • Wally1976 says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:31

    I would’ve thought most people on here would go for both cards – Supercard for foreign spend and Curve for UK spend at non-Amex retailers (and UK ATMs).

    Personally I’ve had no involvement with either yet – found no need for Supercard as I have Lloyds Amex and Halifax Clarity and Curve’s no good as I don’t have any Apple tech. When Curve get their Android app out I shall be in (assuming the terms haven’t changed noticeably).

    I presume the business of getting the Supercard users to re-apply is so that they can get the users to sign up to with terms.

  • Wally1976 says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:35

    Rob, is it worth you running an article on the Revolut product I hear mentioned on here quite frequently (but am too lazy to investigate myself)?

    • PG says:
      10 Mar10 March 08:41

      Tried this myself on a recent trip to the US. Signed up for the physical card that arrived within two days then topped up directly from my debit card and used it for cash withdrawals and purchases with no issues at all. Also got free £5 from a code I found somewhere. They promise to keep the card fee free for the first year but no indication of whether they will introduce a fee thereafter.

      • Singing Dwarf says:
        10 Mar10 March 08:56

        The promise of no fees for a year with Revolut means nothing. They already introduced fees recently, within a year for most customers.

    • Rob says:
      10 Mar10 March 12:11

      I struggle to see the value in it, since it means pre-loading a card with real cash – as opposed to either using a credit card with no FX fees or a product like Supercard or Curve – and generates no rewards.

      • Singing Dwarf says:
        10 Mar10 March 14:01

        It used to have value – you used to be able to link credit cards.

  • Ian H says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:35

    Rob, have you tried Supercard -> Curve -> AMEX? Is this possible?

  • Oyster says:
    10 Mar10 March 09:06

    So where is this Curve card then? It’s already mid March!

    • Genghis says:
      10 Mar10 March 12:56

      I’m sure when it came out it said ready in ‘March’ but a recent email from them send ‘end of March’…

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!