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Curve Card is now available to the public as a debit card

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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.)

Curve Card, the Mastercard that allows you to merge all of your Mastercard and Visa cards into one product, launches to the general public today.

It had previously been available only to anyone who had self-employed income.  It had a generous cashback rewards scheme despite being free because it could charge higher fees to retailers.

The consumer version will be less generous, because Curve does not have any fee arbitrage to play with.  There will be a rewards scheme available soon, however, and I will let you know when it launches.

Put simply, every transaction you charge to Curve is recharged to a linked Visa or Mastercard.  Via the Curve app you can select which card is charged per transaction, allowing you to add your debit card and various Visa and Mastercard credit cards and then switch between them at will.

Financially there are two reasons to use Curve:

You can withdraw £200 of cash per month from an ATM and have it charged to your credit card as a purchase – this means it earns miles and points. 

Foreign currency transactions made on Curve are recharged to your linked Visa or Mastercard in Sterling with a 1% foreign exchange adjustment.  This makes it a better deal than using the underlying card which is likely to have a 3% FX fee.

There will, soon, be a rewards scheme of some sort

There are more practical features too, such as the ability to export your spending data for analysis and the ability (as I found out myself in November when I lost my wallet) to lock the card from your phone.  As Curve is contactless, it is also a way of making any non-contactless Visa or Mastercard you have into a contactless one.

The Curve website is here if you want to know more.  You need to download the Curve app for your phone and order a card from there if you want to try it out.

Curve will pay you £10 for trying it out if you use our link.

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

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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.

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

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

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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:

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

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Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

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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 (114)

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

  • Mr Dee says:
    17 Jan17 January 10:14

    Yes exactly, the Curve card is NOT generous at all outside the selected affiliate programs as there is no reward for regular spend, I can’t see the consumer version being less generous.

    They are basically bagging the interchange difference and not passing it on to the business or consumer card users.,

  • Phil says:
    17 Jan17 January 10:28

    Just signed up. Onboarding process was VERY smooth and intuitive. Hopefully that theme continues!

  • Andrew says:
    17 Jan17 January 10:44

    I just signed up to Curve with the referral code but still almost 50k people waitlisted in front of me. Is that about right? Anyone know how long it is likely to take? Or how far you jump the queue if you refer someone?

    I’m going to be about £200 short of clearing a balance on my Lloyds Avios in the end so this should work great. Withdraw as cash, pay off the existing balance and will have another month before it starts earning interesting to pay off my new £200 balance! In fact, am I right in thinking that given the 2% fee on withdrawals over £200 mentioned in the comments below is lower than the monthly rate for the Lloyds card, it’d worth withdrawing your entire outstanding balance being charged interest as cash (provided you have the headroom in your credit limit) and then paying it and repeating each month?

    • Andrew says:
      17 Jan17 January 10:47

      (ok the difference is small around 0.25% so you’re not saving mega bucks but could be a small help to anyone really struggling to clear a balance)

      • Alex W says:
        17 Jan17 January 12:39

        There is a limit to how much cash curve will.let you withdraw. Mine is £5000 per month, think it might be 2k forma newbie.

  • barry cutters says:
    17 Jan17 January 10:52

    I will be visiting either the Cathay First or Qantas lounge this afternoon if anyone needs guested in.
    Will be there about 2 for a 5pm flight to Vancouver

    • Lumma says:
      17 Jan17 January 12:11

      Used the Cathay business and Qantas lounges on Monday. Slight preference for the Cathay one so I’d recommend using that especially if you can use the first class part. Didn’t try the Al is carte dining in the Qatar lounge however.

      Both are way better than the BA lounge in T3 though

  • Leo_c says:
    17 Jan17 January 10:56

    Does Curve now work with Apple Pay if it is now a master card and not a preloaded card- It did not before

    • Lumma says:
      17 Jan17 January 12:06

      It doesn’t work with android pay so I’d imagine it’s the same with Apple. The financial institution behind the card has to support the payment method. I think you can’t use Tesco bank cards either

  • Talay says:
    17 Jan17 January 11:11

    I think it should be pointed out that using this will revoke any S75 card protection so best used for coffees rather than expensive electrical goods, holidays, stuff you might ever want to claim for etc.

  • Janet Thomas says:
    17 Jan17 January 11:21

    Does anyone know if the Curve app can be downloaded onto an i-pad instead of a phone?

    • John says:
      17 Jan17 January 11:25

      Yes – I don’t have an iphone so use it on an ipad (from my work – I wouldn’t ever buy one but they let me keep the old one after replacing)

  • Liz says:
    17 Jan17 January 11:24

    I contacted Curve this morning as I had my original Curve account suspended last year as I could not provide evidence of a business although I answered all the questions truthfully at application and it was accepted. They have confirmed I am not on the very long wait list and that they will just reactivate my account when they issue the new card but it wont be till sometime in February.

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