Marriott publishes a summary of Platinum welcome benefits from August

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• Cuchlainn says:

  6 Jun6 June 04:23

  OT ( in case people missed it y’day ) :
  Tesco now charging 3.99% and NO interest free period on cash withdrawals – just got stung for £7.98 using CURVE card in a Tesco ATM to withdraw monthly £200 !!

  • Cuchlainn says:

    6 Jun6 June 04:25

    Sorry – CURVE linked to Tesco Premium card, for info.

    • palcsaky says:

      6 Jun6 June 05:06

      I wonder how long until the rest will follow…

  • James says:

    6 Jun6 June 05:31

    Hmm, that’s annoying. Will keep an eye on my linked IHG card.

  • Ian says:

    6 Jun6 June 05:57

    I don’t understand how Tesco know it was a cash advance from a cash machine? If you’ve used your Curve card then Curve simply charge your Tesco card for a purchase?

    • Anna says:

      6 Jun6 June 06:19

      That’s my thought. If the Curve conditions are that you can withdraw the cash without incurring fees, surely they should notify you if that’s now changed? Cuchlainn – you haven’t accidentally done 2 cash withdrawals in the same calendar month have you? I keep a close check on mine as obviously you can have 2 statement periods in the same calendar month, which is not the same thing!

      • Genghis says:

        6 Jun6 June 06:40

        The charge was Tesco’s, not Curve’s.

      • Anna says:

        6 Jun6 June 06:48

        Ghengis – I would still say that unless Curve’s Ts & Cs have changed, they should be addressing this. It’s not acceptable to have a situation where you might get charged for a cash withdrawal but you don’t know until you’ve actually done it!

      • Genghis says:

        6 Jun6 June 06:56

        Surely Curve can’t be responsible for the T&Cs of all the different underlying cards?

      • Yuff says:

        6 Jun6 June 07:21

        Everytime I’ve done an atm transaction it says your card issuer may charge you do you wish to continue?
        Sounds like they have it covered in case you are charged.

        • Rob says:

          6 Jun6 June 09:00

          That is standard ATM language when certain sorts of cards are popped in. Not specific to Curve.

      • RIccatti says:

        6 Jun6 June 08:32

        From what it looks then, you will be charged for purchases on Tesco credit card (if you swiped Curve card too).

        Below are confirmation cases: people started to get charged by Tesco Credit card on ANY transaction from Curve, which is probably incorrect.

        And yes — coincides with Visa ‘technical issues’.

      • Cuchlainn says:

        6 Jun6 June 17:24

        Anna,
        2 x cash only transactions – 4th May and 1st June – both @ Tesco ATMs ( pushing for 5,000 points Clubcard bonus lol ! ).

        I ( my wife actually but I do the finances ) did receive correspondence from Tesco on 21st May but it did not state which Tesco card – we have Premium and also no annual fee one. Apparently this notification refers to all Tesco Credit Cards bar none.

        Q. Where do I go now for an underlying credit card under Curve ? Other than the 1% overseas purchase route, I struggle to see a use for it with £200 ATM withdrawals now chargeable.

      • Alex W says:

        6 Jun6 June 22:32

        I’ve had no problems withdrawing cash with IHG Premium linked to curve.

    • Memesweeper says:

      6 Jun6 June 06:27

      Well, it was a Tesco ATM so I’m fairly sure they can join the dots on that if they want to.

      They make the rules, and if they want to they could treat all Curve transactions as cash advances, or just block them entirely. Curve might push transactions into the banking system as a purchase but it is at least arguable it’s not. If a very large bank tried to shut out Curve then the CMA might have something to say, Tesco clearly are not concerned about that.

      • Prune says:

        6 Jun6 June 07:20

        I can also confirm that I have have multiple cash advance charges made on my Tesco credit card via curve purchases but only since the beginning of June

      • Axel says:

        6 Jun6 June 07:40

        Ive been charged the cash fee for a 1st June transaction and it was a Sainsburys ATM. It was the day Visa went down and a large queue had formed at the ATM next to the Pub.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Jun6 June 07:51

        See article a few days back about tesco charging 3.99% on transactions to fintech companies like revolut etc

        Looks like Curve has been caught up in this, possibly incorrectly.

        However, still no idea why you would link to a tesco debit/credit card vs a virgin/ihg/hilton credit card.

  • Geoff says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:25

    Not just ATM cash withdrawals. I am now being charged the 3.99% by Tesco on ALL CURVE TRANSACTIONS.

    • Rob says:

      6 Jun6 June 08:57

      Will cover this tomorrow.

    • Will Squires says:

      6 Jun6 June 09:13

      Same, I’m furious about it. Had a most unsatisfactory conversation with their call centre yesterday. Started by saying it was because I was using it for “cash transactions” (Starling, Monzo). Then I pointed to the charge I’d received for spending £12 in “Kitty Cafe”. Her tune then changed to “because whenever you use an intermediary *like Curve* that’s a cash transaction”. I told her I expect they’ll be applying the same charge to customers using PayPal then – “uhm, uhm….”.

      She then read out a letter they claim to have sent out a letter on May 21st, did anyone receive such a letter? I certainly didn’t.

      Complaint in progress. Whatever the rights and wrongs you can’t start dropping charges on people with no notice. I’ll be seeking a refund of my annual fee since between this and Tesco Direct closing the card is now basically useless to me.

    • Andre says:

      6 Jun6 June 10:48

      Anyone had any luck with going “back in time” with curve? I’ve just done a test with one of the purchases since 1st June.

  • Craig says:

    6 Jun6 June 14:34

    If this ends up being the case for all UK credit cards then curve’s business model goes up in smoke. I put a couple of small transactions through to a HSBC WE, I’ll see what happens.

• James says:

  6 Jun6 June 05:29

  This backtracking from Marriott regarding Platinum status for SPG-matched Marriott-Gold’s (mouthful !) is rather mean spirited.

  I have SPG Gold and have never, ever stayed in a Marriott. I was going to switch a number of IHG and other stays over to Marriott in order to enjoy the Platinum benefits. Who knows, I may have enjoyed the Marriott brand and stayed there loads, earning platinum the hard way but now we’ll never know.

  Never mind that then. They can go without my money; The miserable recanterers !

  • Steve-B says:

    6 Jun6 June 07:17

    Isn’t that the point – why would Marriott extend the benefits to someone who has “never ever stayed in a Marriott”… on the basis that they “may” in future.

    Fully agree that they shouldn’t have set expectations the way they did though.

    • Chris says:

      6 Jun6 June 12:17

      Because the post-august scheme is not Marriott, it’s (Marriott+SPG) so anyone with lots of SPG stays is therefore someone who *has* made stays at the combined group

  • Tilly says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:37

    It’s really p’d me off. After my non-redundable booking stay in September they will not get any more from me, i will stick with Hilton. I was considering switching loyalty if I’d enjoyed my stay with them but now I will stay with Hilton.

• Prune says:

  6 Jun6 June 07:06

  OT – I am having issues transferring avios from iberia to avios at the moment- I have tried the methods via the iberia site and the avios site but no joy. I have checked all my details and they match. Anybody else having this issue?

• Tom says:

  6 Jun6 June 07:08

  At the risk of defending Marriott a little, there is no ‘backtracking’ here. It wasn’t 100% clear at the time what the position would be after the terms of the new scheme were first announced and it was all a little bit of a mess. Rob was told by one Marriott representative that SPG Gold would become Platinum whilst others were told it would become Gold and clearly jumped too quickly to a conclusion based on this as was pointed out at the time. See the thread in the Marriott forum at Flyertalk.

  Logistically, Marriott has never really been like Hilton (i.e. just giving out status for nothing), so this decision is hardly a surprise.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Jun6 June 07:43

    Agree. For me everything pointed to getting Gold not Platinum.

• Ryan says:

  6 Jun6 June 07:12

  Morning Rob.

  I also have a six night vacation booked with Marriott, which would be great to put towards a Platinum challenge, but your original article states that this will count as just one stay, yet you allude to your 3 night Venice trip pushing you to he night night threshold?

  Can you clarify please?

  • Ryan says:

    6 Jun6 June 07:13

    * Pushing you to the 9 night threshold.

  • KBuffett says:

    6 Jun6 June 07:18

    I don’t read it that way. He’s saying the free breakfast over those theee nights will cover the costs incurred for paying for 9 nights.

    • Ryan says:

      6 Jun6 June 07:24

      But a three night break is only one stay, so how can said three night break complete a 9 stay challenge (6 stays completed already plus an additional 3 Nights/1 stay in Venice) ?

      • Genghis says:

        6 Jun6 June 07:30

        The Venice stay isn’t part of the challenge

        • Rob says:

          6 Jun6 June 09:00

          Correct

      • Alex W says:

        6 Jun6 June 22:39

        He will have already completed 9 stays before he gets to Venice.

• Ryan says:

  6 Jun6 June 07:42

  The article doesn’t state that, nor does it in infer that it isn’t part of the challenge.

  Indeed there is a clear correlation that it does, insofar as alluding to 6+3=9!!

  • Genghis says:

    6 Jun6 June 07:48

    Need to have the status to get the free breakfast. QED

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Jun6 June 07:53

    In order to be Platinum and get the free breakfast he is talking about he would have to complete the 9 stays atleast a week or so before.

• Ryan says:

  6 Jun6 June 07:58

  In Rob’s defence, my experience of the challenge is you are upgraded to platinum for the length of the challenge, and should you hit, you stay platinum, if you don’t, you keep gold.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:13

    Do they? SPG didn’t and only had 3 calender months to complete. You could go back a month though.

  • Lee says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:19

    No, only Hilton dose that

    • Crafty says:

      6 Jun6 June 11:58

      So does Jury’s Inn! More niche I admit.

  • Elaine says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:29

    There are (or used to be anyway) two types of Platinum challenge with Marriott. One upgraded you to Platinum immediately and you had to do the stays to keep it, and with the other you had to do the stays first before you got granted status. The first one was more common a few years ago but it appears the second is more common nowadays.

• alan d craig says:

  6 Jun6 June 08:26

  I think the platinum challenge needs to be completed by end of July, I am four down and plan to finish by 22nd July with two separate nights in Moxy Aberdeen and courtyard Aberdeen.

  • Rob MC says:

    6 Jun6 June 15:46

    I got accepted for this yesterday and runs til the end of September. I was told that from August SPG properties also count towards the 9

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