Curve card ‘pauses’ Amex functionality

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• Scott says:

  24 May24 May 09:46

  Bit gutted tbh.. Does that mean we can still utilise AMEX up to the 31st (maybe get loads of cash out to gain a few extra miles…)

  And like they rightly say you can still link your mastercard / Visa air miles cards to it for use at ATM for some miles too.

  • john says:

    24 May24 May 10:17

    Supposedly but I tried to pay my counciltax bill online and it was declined on curve. My amex statement shows it got billed to them twice though 😐 Not sure if related to the amex pause..

    • Singing Dwarf says:

      24 May24 May 10:43

      How many people would complain to Amex about this double billing?

      Probably one of the contributory factors for Amex blocking these transactions.

      • Alan says:

        24 May24 May 15:07

        Indeed – some of their text refers to Amex wanting proper support for customers and I’m guessing this double-billing issue has been a big enough headache for them that they’ve despite to just block Curve.

• JamesWag says:

  24 May24 May 09:49

  Booooooh 🙁

  I’m out.

  They mention 0% fx fees here but I thought it was 1%?

  Curve and American Express – what does it mean for you?
  American Express have asked us to pause their functionality with Curve. On May 31st at midday UK time your Amex card will be removed from the app and if you don’t have any other funding cards you’ll need to add and verify a new one to keep using your Curve. Don’t worry – you will still be able to view your transaction history with your American Express from your app.

  We know it’s annoying to lose a popular feature but we really hope you’ll stay with us to experience all the other exciting benefits Curve has to offer. We’re really excited to be on a journey to transform and simplify the way you handle your finances – already connecting up all your bank cards, tracking your transactions in real time, helping you better manage your expenses, and saving you money when you travel with zero FX fees. 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 will give you £35 worth of Curve Points if you have a Blue card or £50 if you have a Black card when we launch Curve Rewards, as long as you spend a total of £1000 on your Curve card over the next 3 months – please see our FAQs for further details. We really hope you’ll stay with us to continue the journey we’re starting together but if you no longer want to be part of the Curve Beta you can cancel your account and get a refund here.

  Let us know if you have any questions.

  Team Curve

  • JamesWag says:

    24 May24 May 10:16

    Without Amex I won’t be spending £1,000 over the next 3 months so the reward points don’t tempt me to stay as won’t qualify anyway 🙁

    Surely Amex would have been happy to have increased spending on its cards (at places which don’t take Amex) so don’t see why they would want to end the relationship BUT I can see that giving points on ATM cash withdrawals is not commercially beneficial.
    Wouldn’t be surprised to see Amex back after a renegotiation with curve; resulting in zero MR points for cash withdrawals and perhaps higher fx charge with some going to Amex (as they will be missing out on that revenue stream).

    • AndyR says:

      24 May24 May 10:55

      Amex can’t distinguish between a cash withdrawal and a purchase though so they wouldn’t be able to not give MR points.

      • Callum says:

        24 May24 May 13:35

        Of course they can. Either curve starts processing ATM transactions as cash advance fees or they put a code in the reference field.

        The question isn’t whether Amex CAN do such a thing, it’s whether they want to go through the hassle.

        If it was so commercially beneficial to them however I don’t see why they couldn’t just launch their own prepaid card and kept 100% of the fees (though Amex will probably face issues giving the business card to those with personal accounts, they can’t feign ignorance as well as Curve can).

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  24 May24 May 09:50

  I’m much less positive than you. I think there’s little point in this card without Amex acceptance now. Supercard looks likely to cover FX (assuming that one doesn’t already hold a 0% FX card), so all that’s left is £200/month in an ATM, which is a pretty slim benefit.

  There is the prospect of ‘Curve Points’, but we’ve no idea how liquid they will be or when we will actually get them. It’s bad enough having to put faith in a completely unknown rewards scheme, but let’s remember that Curve has a track record of cutting benefits and T&Cs shenanigans even in its very short history. Right now there’s an option of a full refund, or some mystery points at some point in the future with an unreliable partner. I don’t find it too hard a choice.

  • Aeronaut says:

    24 May24 May 13:52

    I’m genuinely surprised that so many seemed to buy into it so much, thinking it was going to last. Curve never seemed like a sustainable proposition to me.

• John10 says:

  24 May24 May 09:51

  Was hoping to pay my VAT bill via Amex using Curve this quarter. Oh well, no extra points for me!

  • Moray says:

    24 May24 May 09:52

    Weren’t HMRC charging nearly 3% to use the Curve card anyway?

    • Graham says:

      24 May24 May 10:21

      Around 1.8% when I checked last month.

• Olivula says:

  24 May24 May 09:51

  Kudos to Raffles for being so quick in communicating this on HFP 60 mins after I got the email. Does this man exist? Surely it must be a web-bot?

  • Nick Haley says:

    24 May24 May 10:07

    haha exactly what i thought, this news is up ALREADY.

  • Matt says:

    24 May24 May 10:17

    Copy and Paste is indeed a hard skill to master…

    • Rob says:

      24 May24 May 10:56

      Copy and Paste done on an iPad in Pret, though, which is quite tricky!

    • jonboy73 says:

      24 May24 May 11:08

      a bit uncalled for considering the amount of hard work that goes into this site.

      • Callum says:

        24 May24 May 13:41

        It’s not remotely uncalled for… Most of the article is copy and pasted, ergo it’s not at all impressive that it took less than an hour.

        They made no comment on whether he normally works hard or not… Some people here act like we’re in North Korea sometimes, “how dare you question the beloved leader”!

        • Olivula says:

          24 May24 May 17:27

          I don’t think Raffles has an army of staff at his command. He could be at the dentist, taking his kids to the doctor, having his ear bent by the missus. Or sitting in Terminal 5 swigging fizz en route to Pyongyang to collect his next instructions. A one man band doing an update in short time is just fine by me.

          Yes, I am probably brain washed.

• Jonny says:

  24 May24 May 09:52

  This is frustrating but remember the card is still in Beta mode, so there are bound to be teething problems. A couple I have encountered which may have contributed to the “pause”

  1) Merchant name doesn’t appear on Amex statements.
  2) Curve wrongly recognised one of my cards as a USD card – hence I got hit “both ways” on FX charges

  I’m still “keeping faith” for the time being though obviously if Amex is ruled out long-term then the benefits become very questionable.

• Simon says:

  24 May24 May 09:52

  We wil refund £50* to your original payment card
  *£50 covers the cost of the black card. We will refund you the additional £25 for the Tumi Wallet if you return it with packaging to us. By clicking confirm you accept our cancellation terms and conditions – find out more here.

  It’s comical. What a total sham…..

  • James R says:

    24 May24 May 10:52

    Where did you see that? I read in their FAQs re “How do I send back the wallet to get a full refund?”:

    “It needs to be sent in a jiffy bag minus the original packaging, and must be in saleable unused condition.”

    There are a couple inconsistencies in their FAQs…

  • Mr Dee says:

    24 May24 May 19:17

    agree!

• the_real_a says:

  24 May24 May 09:53

  The question we need to ask now is how long with Curve be around for.

  Do we have confidence that Curve have funding to tide them through the year, to actually get our credit in the summer – or in a couple of months they decide their model is not profitable and close down.

  • Billy says:

    24 May24 May 10:00

    Exactly! Amex has always been the selling point for this card and that’s what brought me to HfP in the first place. Without Amex in the mix it’s just a regular Joe competing with the other cards out there. The whole spend £1000 within 3 months is a waste. I’d rather have that money (£400) go toward my BAPP card

    • Josh says:

      24 May24 May 10:05

      Also note that the £35/50 bonus starts from the end of the month, your previous spend doesn’t count (which is annoying because, like I suspect many people here, I’ve already rung up a few hundred on mine). Looks like they’re getting desperate to hold onto customers.

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