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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 (791)

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

  • Nick_C says:
    30 Jan30 January 08:47

    “I spoke with Curve’s CEO early this morning and, whilst for legal reasons I don’t want to repeat what he said”

    I imagine what Curve’s CEO said wouldn’t have got passed the profanity filter…

    • A different CEO says:
      30 Jan30 January 08:57

      The ceo, in the middle this sh’tstorm, has time to speak to you?

      I get the ‘early this morning’ bit mind – he won’t be able to sleep.

      • tartan says:
        30 Jan30 January 09:08

        The Curve CEO was commenting on Twitter early this mroning that there is more to this story and that they would reveal all later today:

        “Stay tuned – I’ll provide more details tomorrow that might change your view.”

        https://twitter.com/ShacharBialick/status/1090432696776577024

        • Alan says:
          30 Jan30 January 09:36

          Will be interesting to see. I really can’t imagine Curve would have launched this if they didn’t genuinely think they had all their (Amex) ducks in a row.

        • Callum says:
          30 Jan30 January 11:24

          Can’t you? I certainly can, their communication is atrocious! If it’s any indication of how they interact with suppliers then they’re done for.

          Plus typical Curve way of communicating – “I have the information you want, you can have it later”. If past history is anything to go by, he’ll also not actually say anything useful/interesting after teasing it anyway…

  • Bonglim says:
    30 Jan30 January 08:48

    I would suggest that some of the comments here are a bit harsh. I have not had to use their customer service, but I understand it has been pretty poor, which of course makes people mad.

    However, I think they are being innovative and try to push the boundaries and carve out a space in a marketplace that has been fairly stagnant over 30 years. I think they have achieved quite a bit. The wording of the Curve email suggests that Amex have pulled the rug from underneath them:
    – Is it because they saw an opportunity to undermine a business that might eventually impact on their own? A la BA V Virgin in the 90s.
    – Is it truly just because they were concerned about people using Curve to pay off credit card bills. (It seems strange that it WAS blocked to begin with yesterday, but then allowed later in the day; that could be a fatal mistake).
    – I suspect both – an opportunity to act because of the paying off credit card bills and a willingness because of the long term risk to it’s own business.

    It was foolish/ ambitious to launch the new update 2 days before the tax deadline for self employed people. My Jan tax bill of almost 40k could have come via amex – and been done within a couple of days of launch (was not brave enough to do it this time!) Rob’s 100k plus similar amounts from thousands and thousands of self employed individuals – including some who have much bigger tax bills.

    Anyway I hope curve survives. I have, without using amex, benefited to the tune of 40k Avios this tax window.

    • Mark2 says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:00

      I too hope that Curve survives. I think that Amex was a red herring. I used my a my wife’s £50,000 each limit in six months without it.
      Curve and the credit card companies have lists of cards which may not be used ant would be very simple to add to the lists to prevent paying off one credit card with another if they wished to.

    • Andrew L says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:00

      I echo that. I too hope Curve survives this setback because it’s been extremely useful and it would be missed if it was no longer there by many sensible people!

    • Johnny5a says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:14

      I don’t see not having Amex much of a deal breaker though I have the benefit of my Mrs’ HSBC Premier Credit Card.

  • Matt says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:11

    I wonder if it’s the Curve product that Amex had a problem with. All the time it was just a free (or small one-time payment) card and they made money off top ups (which is essentially what the beta program was) it was probably fine.

    Then on Monday everybody (probably including Amex) finds out about the subscription model, and all of a sudden Curve is using Amex and insurance to drive customers to a monthly fee model. I reckon that upset Amex as it probably treads much closer to their model, and they get no per-transaction data in return. With subs included it favours Curve a little too much probably.

    • SimonW says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:25

      Surely Amex were privy to this information though if Curve acted honourably. They would have known what Curve were going to launch, and the various fees etc……

      Im assuming Curve didnt have express permission to launch with Amex, so Amex told them to poke it…..

    • Alan says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:37

      Amex knew all of that well in advance – there’s no way they just found out on Monday and immediately pulled the plug when the model and pricing has been known for weeks!

  • Johnny5a says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:12

    I would have thought Amex would be welcoming of more business after Amex USA shot themselves in the foot with Costco USA.

    • Mr Dee says:
      30 Jan30 January 09:36

      That was a long time ago

      • Johnny5a says:
        30 Jan30 January 09:45

        it was but the ramifications would be still felt now. Costco USA was a very large chunk of Amex’s business

    • Callum says:
      30 Jan30 January 11:30

      Amex is an ENORMOUS finance company. If they wanted more business this way they could very easily just make their own pre-paid card to top up. That’s all this is – I have no idea why so many of you think Curve is something special Amex should be grateful for…

    • Max says:
      30 Jan30 January 13:12

      They have also lost the UK stores as well, but that contract has a while to run

  • Simon S says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:17

    So I paid £14.99 for one month (glad I didn’t sign for a year) to be able to benefit from AMEX points…. which I now can’t, what a waste of time. Glad I used Visa CC to pay

  • Nigel the pensioner says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:23

    Im saying nothing as ot would be Groundhog day….

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:28

    Is anyone else’s Curve Rewards balance ‘Temporarily Unavailable’?

  • Nigel W says:
    30 Jan30 January 09:30

    Sad to hear the news. Luckily my main use for Curve is to pay for Tax and foreign spending in the hope to finish the ’12K HSBC Premier Elite Challenge’.

    Totally could live without the Amex link.

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