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American Express suspends its relationship with Curve Card, just 36 hours after launch

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Here’s something I didn’t see coming.  After launching with much fanfare on Monday, American Express suspended its relationship with Curve Card on Tuesday night.

This came just 36 hours after Amex functionality was launched to the public.  Amex cards had, however, been activated for a test group of Curve Card users for a few months before this.

(EDIT:  Curve has now published a lengthy blog post explaining how the split with American Express occurred.  I copied it into a separate article here.)

If you look on the Curve website, none of the cards are showing the option to link to American Express.  This means that the company is effectively back to the position it was in before Monday.

American Express sent me a statement last night which said:

“American Express participated in a limited Curve beta test where we enabled a small number of Card Members to load funds onto an e-wallet using their Amex Card in the Curve app. Following this beta test we informed Curve that we would not participate in the further roll out of the Curve e-wallet.”

I spoke with Curve’s CEO early this morning and, whilst for legal reasons I don’t want to repeat what he said, he confirmed the position with American Express.

Curve has sent the following to users:

“We are extremely sorry that the top-up functionality for your Amex wallet is currently disabled.

Like thousands of other UK merchants, Curve has a valid merchant agreement to accept Amex payments into its e-wallet. However, on Tuesday evening, Amex decided to terminate this agreement and block all Amex transactions to Curve with immediate effect.

Amex has given no good or fair reason for their decision and we feel it is entirely disproportionate and discriminatory to Curve and all our (joint) customers. UK payment regulations clearly state that Curve should be allowed to access the Amex payment network on a level-playing field with every other fee-paying and legitimate merchant.

Rest assured that you can still spend the funds that you have already topped up to your existing Amex Wallets. If you have contacted us for support, we apologise for the delay in response and will endeavour to do so as soon as possible. We will update you as soon as we have any further information.

With our customers interests in mind, and our mission to deliver to you a truly innovative product, Curve intends to fight Amex’s decision with its full might. We believe financial freedom is the future and we are prepared to fight for yours.”

If there is any more news during the day I will drop it into this article.

TechCrunch has decent take on the subject here if you want to read more.  It is worth noting that the Amex statement given to TechCrunch – 18 hours after my statement – is a bit different:

“We participated in a limited Curve beta test in which we explored enabling Card Members to load funds onto an e-wallet using their Amex Card in the Curve app. A very small number of Amex Card Members participated in the test. Based on the results, we communicated to Curve that we would not participate in the further roll out of Curve because of concerns related to the overall American Express Card Member experience. Subsequently we terminated our contract with them.”

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

PS.  In a separate (or perhaps not entirely separate) note, payment company Billhop – we covered Billhop here – sent the following email to users yesterday:

“Due to guidelines from American Express you will no longer be able to make payments to private accounts with an American Express card regardless if the purpose of the payment is related to a business transaction. This change will come into effect on the 7th of February 2019.

You will still be able to use a MasterCard and/or VISA card for transactions to private accounts relating to business transactions including, but not limited to, payroll, housekeeping, rent, nanny services, etc.

Please note that peer-to-peer remittance is still not allowed regardless of card.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.”

Note that this only covers payments to sole traders.  You can continue to use Amex via Billhop to pay a company, local authority, HMRC etc.

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Comments (788)

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

  • Nate1309 says:
    30 Jan30 January 18:13

    Anyone else just been contacted by the AMEX fraud prevention team to confirm that they made the curve transactions and that the goods and services were received as expected?
    I was on the beta test and have spent £13000 over the last 8 weeks.

    • Alex says:
      30 Jan30 January 18:17

      Nothing for me, £12K Amex spend over the last month or so

    • John says:
      30 Jan30 January 18:19

      So they’re worried about fraud are they…

    • Nate1309 says:
      30 Jan30 January 19:02

      They asked was I happy with curves service, which i said yes. I then said i was sad to see its ties with amex severed this morning, to which the amex guy just laughed.

    • Andrew L says:
      30 Jan30 January 19:16

      This is Amex covering their arse because they know they have a legal battle with Curve on the way.

      I hope Curve clean them out!!

      • The Streets says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:55

        that would be completely counterproductive

      • Mr Dee says:
        31 Jan31 January 00:44

        Haha unlikely to happen at any level

        • Alan Partridge says:
          31 Jan31 January 01:02

          Seeing how disorganised Curve are, I’d be surprised if they didn’t turn up at the wrong court, on the wrong date. They probably wouldn’t even make it all due to their own cards being declined on route.

  • Mark2 says:
    30 Jan30 January 18:41

    Any news of the earth-shattering announce by the CEO of Curve?

    • Jimbob says:
      30 Jan30 January 18:49

      Nope, he’s gone quiet on Twitter

      • LB says:
        30 Jan30 January 18:52

        Can I be the 500th comment please?

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:10

        Has he deleted his easier tweet?

        App isn’t working either now, for me at least…

      • Andrew L says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:18

        They have annnounced on the Curve Blog in the last few hours that they are working hard and will update everyone as soon as they have something to report.

      • Tom says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:26

        He was never that loud on twitter – but sure those who have contributed the $12m in funding to-date did all they could to shorten his rope this morning.

        Just what every investor wants right? The promise of a “full-might” fight with an $86.7Bn Market Cap firm, the relationship with whom could make-or-break your investment?

        Suspect it’s the end for Curve, and whilst I bow to Rob’s greater knowledge and industry experience, I disagree with the assertion that money with Curve is safe because Santander Ventures has given them a few million bucks; the wider firm did just renege on hiring their new CEO, blaming errors in their maths homework…..

        • Andrew L says:
          30 Jan30 January 20:42

          You are covered under the FSCS up to £85,000 with any funds you may have in Curve. So your money is safe.

        • Tom says:
          30 Jan30 January 22:20

          @ Andrew L – as JPR had eluded to that is a simplified and potentially misleading statement. Won’t challenge your “have faith” messages but lets not confuse the protections for lisenced current accounts and spend on the linked debit cards, with the entire service offered by Curve, including money introduced from credit / cash cards.

          As a company that has long insisted it is best not to be highly regulated, were Curve to go under any compensation offered by FSCS would be highly scrutinised.

        • Alan Partridge says:
          31 Jan31 January 00:55

          I have a lot more faith in Amex than I do in Curve. I’ve had only good service from Amex over the years ( delayed SPG points aside ), despite going through a whole raft of cards with them for the bonuses. Curve on the other hand have been a disorganised mess since the start. If I were putting a wager on whether Amex broke the terms of a contract or Curve promised something that wasn’t set in stone yet, I know which I’d be betting on.

    • callum says:
      30 Jan30 January 20:15

      Of course not. The entire history of Curve is them promising an announcement/information, not doing so then just acting like they never said anything in the first place. I’ll be shocked if this is any different!

  • Dave B says:
    30 Jan30 January 18:55

    Have £14.30 left In my Amex wallet to spend . Ay more declines?

    • Grant says:
      30 Jan30 January 19:07

      I managed to put all bar 30p of my remaining Amex balance on to my Amazon account a couple of hours ago.

      • D Smith says:
        30 Jan30 January 19:25

        I removed my AMEX card from the curve app, and few hours later have my wallet balance showing as “wallet refund to AMEX”. I have also asked for a refund of my subscription fee under the 14 day cooling off terms. Very disappointed but not prepared to sit and wait and risk losing my money for a card which doesn’t deliver what it promised.

  • Alex says:
    30 Jan30 January 19:08

    I paid twice today via Curve, all good. Try Amazon top-up

    • Andrew L says:
      30 Jan30 January 19:24

      Yes, no problem with purchases for me either. Have faith, Curve has survived without Amex for the past few years, I’m sure they’ll change their offerings and continue surviving without them.

  • Roger says:
    30 Jan30 January 19:17

    What happened to Curve App?
    Hope they haven’t downed the shutters.

  • CF Frost says:
    30 Jan30 January 19:30

    Haven’t read all comments, but interested to learn MC’s take on all of this – surely bad PR by association and they must be aware that people are paying credit with credit so surprised if do not hold significant concerns about risk, their licence, and their reputation.

    • Mr Dee says:
      31 Jan31 January 00:42

      Well there is no issue paying off a bill with a debit card the issue arises when people are doing a round circle to generate points and with payments being reported to credit files don’t expect good results on credit apps without a valid reason for it

  • Bb90 says:
    30 Jan30 January 20:24

    I have said this before and will say again.

    I had serious fraud issues on my curve card, there is no customer services to speak to and curve reportedly tried to charge my cards without authorisation and gave no explanation.

    I had to get new cards from my issuers and cancel my curve. Would you give money to someone you can’t speak to?

    • Funtime says:
      30 Jan30 January 20:32

      Lock your card?

    • Mr Dee says:
      30 Jan30 January 20:40

      Care to share more details, not heard this before?

      Agree you can’t have a financial card that people may rely on without phone support

      • John says:
        31 Jan31 January 09:08

        I don’t care about phone support but curve doesn’t respond to their emails

    • Bb90 says:
      30 Jan30 January 21:19

      Repeatedly* not Reportedly

      • BlueHorizonUK says:
        30 Jan30 January 22:22

        I am pretty certain there is a phone number on the back of the card?

    • Big Dave says:
      31 Jan31 January 07:48

      one of the main reasons I use curve is to only carry one card and if it gets lost or stolen you can lock it – I never had more than a one or two day delay in customer services getting in touch and when they did it was usually beyond the call of duty and to be expected of a startup.

    • Graeme says:
      31 Jan31 January 08:06

      I had three fraudulent transactions on my card from Russia on Sunday (about £1300 to some Russian travel site). About an hour after I sent Curve a message, they’d blocked my card and started the process of refunding me. On Tuesday the money was back. I can’t fault them at all. Haven’t received my new card yet, but hopefully it’ll come soon.

  • Mark2 says:
    30 Jan30 January 20:38

    Just a thought: if Curve go bust there will be a lot of credit card details in their records.

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