Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Curve Card is now working with American Express for beta testers – this is how it works

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

(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 is an all-in-one payment wallet and aggregator that is popular amongst Head for Points readers.  I describe Curve in detail here, but in summary:

Curve Card (a debit Mastercard) is free – in fact Curve will pay you £10 for trying it out if you use our link

You can link any other Visa or Mastercard to Curve – so the smart thing to do is to link a miles or points earning card

You can pay DEBIT card bills with Curve which are recharged to your linked Visa or Mastercard.  Importantly, this recharge goes through as a purchase and so earns miles and points on the underlying card.

You can withdraw £200 of cash per month at an ATM for free and it will be recharged to your underlying Visa or Mastercard as a purchase, earning miles and points (unless you have a credit card from Tesco Bank, which treats Curve ATM transactions as cash)

You pay ZERO FX fees when using your Curve Card for overseas spending (Mon-Fri, a 0.5% loading applies at weekends).  This effectively turns ANY Visa or Mastercard into a ‘no FX fees’ credit card.  There is a £500 per month ‘no FX fees’ limit on the free Curve Blue card and a £15,000 annual limit on the £50 Curve Black card.

As you can see, there is lots of interesting stuff here that can both save you money on FX fees and earn you miles and points too.

Curve is about to allow American Express cards to be linked to the card.  This will have a number of advantages:

You can pay with American Express anywhere, even at shops which don’t allow American Express, by using your Curve Mastercard linked to your Amex

You can pay with American Express at places which only accept debit cards, by using your Curve Mastercard linked to your Amex

You can spend abroad on American Express without incurring FX fees, by using your Curve Mastercard linked to your Amex (up to £500 per month on the free Curve version)

Amex payments are currently operating via a Beta programme with a small number of Curve users.

In summary:

Amex functionality is a little different.  You will have an e-wallet enabled in your Curve app.  You need to pre-load this with funds from your linked American Express card.  The T&Cs say that eventually the top-up will be automated, so that you don’t need to manually load funds – as soon as you make a £100 Curve purchase, for example, Curve will automatically top-up your e-wallet and authorise the transaction.  

Amex use is not free.  Holders of the free Blue Curve card will pay 0.65% on all American Express transactions.  Holders of the £50 Black Curve will get £1,000 of American Express payments for free each month, with a fee of 0.65% thereafter.

All UK personal American Express cards are accepted as far as I can tell.  This includes charge (Platinum), BA, SPG etc.  This is a surprise as I understood that only the co-brand cards – which have had their fees capped under EU legislation – were going to participate.

Is it worth paying 0.65% for American Express acceptance?

Oddly, there is not a straight answer here.

If you have Curve Black then, whilst you are spending your £1,000 of free Amex allowance per month, it is clearly a good deal.  Beyond that, or for all Curve Blue customers, it is a bit different.

On the face of it, you might say:

“I am paying 0.65p per £1 recharged to my free BA Amex to earn 1 Avios, and 0.65p is a bargain”, or

“I am paying 0.65p per £1 recharged to my BA Premium Plus Amex to earn 1.5 Avios, and 0.43p per Avios is a great bargain”, or

“I am paying 0.65p per £1 recharged to my SPG Amex to earn 3 Starwood / Marriott points, and 0.22p per Starwood / Marriott points is a great bargain”

However ….

There is also an opportunity cost because you could have used a Visa or Mastercard for free.  You could for example:

Link a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard to Curve, earn 1.5 Virgin miles per £1 and pay no transaction fee, or

Link a BA Premium Plus American Express to Curve, earn 1.5 Avios per £1 and pay 0.65% transaction fee

Your American Express acceptance cost is therefore 0.65% PLUS whatever rewards you would have got for free linking your highest earning Visa or Mastercard instead.

There are very few ‘super generous’ Visa or Mastercard products available however, so unless you have one of the new Virgin Atlantic cards or the IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard then paying for Amex acceptance via Curve is likely to be your best bet.

Of course, if ‘manufacturing’ American Express spend via Curve Card makes it easier to hit the 2-4-1 voucher on your British Airways American Express card, or hit the sign-up bonus on a new Amex, or hit the 10000 points annual bonus for spending £15000 on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, then the maths changes again. Using Amex via Curve is likely to be an excellent way of ensuring that you hit these targets.

Most Head for Points readers WILL get a lot of benefit from linking their American Express card to Curve.

When can I get it?

I don’t know.  The Beta programme launched last week for those who were invited.  The rest of us will have to wait a while.

It is also worth noting that Curve is planning to replace the existing Black card with two new products, each of which will carry a monthly fee but will come with a far wider range of benefits than you receive now.  I am not sure how existing Black cardholders will be migrated.

There is certainly no harm in getting yourself the free Curve Blue card now.  You can enjoy all of the benefits I outlined at the top of the page whilst waiting for Amex acceptance to roll 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

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

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (271)

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

  • LewisB says:
    26 Nov26 November 13:01

    This has been a great read today between the news item and the comments. No doubt representatives of Curve and Amex are reading all of this…

    • Simon says:
      26 Nov26 November 13:39

      Curve and HFP have a partnership; and most of the Besta testers seem to either be HFP readers or have been directed to this site by Curve. So hopefully they will listen to the comments and feedback.

  • Simon says:
    26 Nov26 November 13:37

    Just a thought over lunch: what happens when regulators get a whiff of this new feature? Will Curve remove all Amex cards that aren’t co-branded?

    • Mark2 says:
      26 Nov26 November 14:16

      Which regulators?

    • Rob says:
      26 Nov26 November 15:59

      You have to assume that Amex has agreed to let Curve charge the same reduced fee across all cards (or Curve is swallowing a loss on Plat/Gold transactions in order to ensure all Amex cards are covered).

  • MDA says:
    26 Nov26 November 14:18

    What happens to your funds if you cancel your amex? I presume your money is safe within Curve? Are they regulated by the FCA?

    • Mr dee says:
      26 Nov26 November 14:33

      Yeah safe for them

      • Dan says:
        26 Nov26 November 15:10

        the beta terms suggest that you’d get the funds refunded to your underlying card within 10 days if you no longer want to hold a balance in the digital amex wallet. Not sure if the same would / could apply if Amex cancelled your card, however.

    • Mark2 says:
      26 Nov26 November 16:11

      surely once you have ‘transferred’ the funds to Curve what happens with your Amex card is irrelevant? You just spend them as normal.

      • Dan says:
        26 Nov26 November 18:24

        Yes agreed.

        I think the (small) issue would be if you’d just transfered a large amount to Curve, Amex or you directly cancel your account , and you’re left with a significant balance on your Curve account. Not hugely problematic – as you could still spend it.

        • Big Dave says:
          27 Nov27 November 07:58

          I would think in exceptional circumstances You should be able to refund to another card/account – curve guys are quite interactive once you get to know them

  • Russ says:
    26 Nov26 November 14:54

    Just ignoring the cost for a moment are testers finding this card does what’s supposed to do? Any problems booking flights at an airport or with hotels putting advanced charges on the card?

    • Rob says:
      26 Nov26 November 15:56

      Won’t be a problem now because it is a debit card, not a prepaid card like the original Curve.

      • Russ says:
        26 Nov26 November 16:13

        Oh ok. Thanks Rob.

      • Am says:
        26 Nov26 November 18:18

        Agreed with rob the only problem I had was with hsbc not curve. All sorted now and all curve transactions are agreed. Better than revolut nonsense. Got the black and its not a mnthly fee either and it doesn’t cost prople of debit and crefit cards. Also I withdrew from hsbc credit card as cash and it went down as a 26 month intetrst free purchase.

        Just wish they’d have a universal app and not an iphone only app. It is very annoying

      • Steve says:
        28 Nov28 November 07:18

        Does this have any bearing on Section 75 rights? If a debit card anything bought via Curve is not covered, and debit card chargeback only applies?

        • Alan says:
          28 Nov28 November 07:42

          You’ve never had S75 with Curve, just like with PayPal. Weaker Mastercard chargeback processes are available.

    • Rob Walker says:
      26 Nov26 November 16:56

      For some reason the government tax free childcare site refuses it. With our monthyl bill for two kids currently around £1400 before the tax free ‘discount’, it would be a nice source of points!

      • Bini says:
        26 Nov26 November 17:57

        I would escalate this to mumsnet

      • Manwithaplan says:
        26 Nov26 November 20:55

        Have you sent a message to curve support? They should then request an update to the bin code list which should fix it.

        • Rob Walker says:
          27 Nov27 November 16:34

          Thanks, I’ll give it a go. I’ll check who the payment provider is when I make the payment tomorrow, and then drop Curve a line.

  • Wendy Jones says:
    26 Nov26 November 15:56

    I recently opened a black account for me in the hopes of this. I opened a blue acct for my other half.

    I was invited to apply with the black card, but when I filled in the form I accidentally filled in the email address for hubby’s blue card, so they ended up inviting him to beta test. So instead of free transactions it’s at the 0.65%, but I still believe it’s good value. Especially because he normally uses his Tesco MC lots of under £8 purchases where he can’t use Amex, and doesn’t gain the CC points. Now he can. I tend to use the cards for the much bigger spends. So it’ll work out ok.

    We haven’t used it for anything too big, no holidays or travel. We topped up 250 initially, costing 1.63 in fees, I think. We’ve used it twice for £70’ish transactions over the weekend with absolutely no issues. So far so good.

    I wish it had come through 10 days ago as we were on holiday in France and the free FX would have come in handy.

    • Anna says:
      26 Nov26 November 16:03

      If no spanners are thrown in the works along the way, that’s going to be a godsend. We have chunks of holiday spends which we generally have to pay in $ such as dive packages and car hire so it’ll be fantastic if we can put them on Amex and not incur a sizeable fee. (You often get businesses adding on their own fees for CC use in the Caribbean which means a double hit).

  • Michele says:
    26 Nov26 November 18:42

    Two things strike me about this 1. The promised November roll out isn’t happening 2. Curve seemed to have kept Rob in the dark about their plans. In hindsight wish I hadn’t taken Rob’s advice to upgrade. C’est la vie!

  • Leo says:
    26 Nov26 November 18:57

    OT: (ish) being a bit thick here – if I pay for flights in say dollars online with curve (from UK) do I pay a FX fee or charge?

  • Alex Sm says:
    26 Nov26 November 19:18

    Is £50 fee one-off or annual? I got upgraded to Black ‘for free’ earlier this year in belated ‘compensation’ for them charging me hefty £35 for being an early adopter. Quite worried now if they are going to charge me £50 every year or not. Does anyone know?

    • Shoestring says:
      26 Nov26 November 20:40

      Fee not yet announced (but it’s going to be more than £50/ year)

      • Dan says:
        26 Nov26 November 21:24

        Agreed, seems like an £x per month charge might be Curve’s plan for the future. I’ll wait and see which specific benefits it offers; but dubious that it will be particuarly attractive!

    • Am says:
      27 Nov27 November 22:08

      Lets hope they call it metal and black stays as it is. We should be left alone at least till the card expires. Not really interested in amex but i wanted the higher foreign spend and atm withdrawal. I hope Rob is right. At the end of the day it is just advice. Get the fairfx card to get £35 back to cover most of your curve fee. But to be honest rob knows nothing more than anyone else.

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!