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Curve adds 1% cashback – you can double-dip with Visa and Mastercard rewards

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Curve Card, the ‘all your cards [unless they are Amex] on one card’ card, has just launched its new rewards program, called Curve Cash.

As a reminder, Curve offers to consolidate your entire card portfolio into one card, letting you pay with a Curve Card and re-charging your preferred linked credit or debit card.

Key benefits of Curve Card for points collectors include:

being able to pay abroad and have the charge re-charged (in £) to your linked miles and points Visa or Mastercard, with either a 0% or a very low FX fee – far lower than the standard 3% on your underlying card

being able to withdraw £200 of cash from an ATM every 30 days and have it recharged as a PURCHASE to your linked Visa or Mastercard (unless it is a NatWest, RBS or Tesco card)

It is particularly useful in combination with rewards credit cards in situations in which retailers do not (or charge a premium to) accept credit cards but do take debit cards.  HMRC is a good example – you can pay your tax with Curve and have it recharged to your linked credit card as a purchase, earning reward points.  Last week we looked at the value of signing up for a Curve Card.

Curve Cash lets you ‘double up’ on your rewards

This new program works in addition to reward programs on your underlying cards.  This means you can ‘double dip’ on spend you push through your Curve Card.

The new scheme offers cashback at many top retailers.  You get different benefits depending on which card you hold:

Curve Blue (the free version): 1% instant cashback on up to three pre-selected retailers for 90 days.

Curve Black: 1% instant cashback on up to three pre-selected retailers indefinitely

Curve Metal: 1% instant cashback on up to six pre-selected retailers indefinitely

You can select the retailers you earn cashback at.   The choice includes top brands such as Amazon, Apple, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco, M&S, Pret, TFL, Uber, Gett, Spotify and Netflix. 

A quick back-of-the-envelope guestimate is that a Curve Black cardholder should be able to easily earn £5 cashback per month (50% of the monthly fee) and a Curve Metal cardholder £7.50 (60% of the monthly fee if you are on the £150/year option).

This assumes that your top three choices account for £500 per month of spending (let’s say TFL, Pret and Waitrose) and your top six choices account for £750.

It could be a lot more, of course.  If you have a family and are spending £100+ per week at Waitrose, Asda, Tesco, Lidl, M&S, Aldi or Sainsbury’s then you would generate £5 per month just from your top merchant.

This is a fairly good selection although you should do the maths before you select your retailers.  Netflix and Spotify, for example, would yield fairly low cashback despite their recurring transactions: 1% on £9.99 is only 9p a month.  You are likely to spend far more at supermarkets, Amazon or TFL.

If you use a Visa or Mastercard as your primary rewards credit card – which probably means you focus on the Virgin, Lufthansa or IHG Premium products instead of a BA Amex – you should do the maths to see if Curve Cash makes it worthwhile getting a Curve Card.

If nothing else, Curve Cash should be worth at least £10 to you if you apply for the free Curve Blue if you spend £300 per month at your chosen Curve Cash retailers.  After 90 days, however, the free Curve Blue stops giving rewards.

You can find out more about Curve Card in our full recent review here.

PS.  If you applied for Curve before February 2018, you will remain by default on the old Curve Rewards scheme.  This has a smaller list of merchants but a higher cashback rate.  You can switch to Curve Cash by contacting Customer Services.  This may not make sense for everyone, depending on which plan you are on – you should have received an email in the last 48 hours explaining your options.

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


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – November 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

Get 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

30,000 bonus points (TO 18 NOVEMBER) 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:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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 Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios 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 when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Comments (111)

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

  • Matt says:

    I travel most weeks in Europe and thought Curve would be great to drive points on Virgin Mastercard, but the Curve card keeps on declining, which is a bit embarrassing in some restaurants or long queues to get a sandwich, so I’ve stopped using it. Is this normal for Curve or should I check if it is a faulty card?

    • John says:

      Same. Not a faulty card, just poor software at their end, I think.

    • Mr. AC says:

      That is very surprising. I don’t think I’ve ever had it decline over almost 2 years of usage across the world (incl. places like Ukraine, Israel and Japan). Only example I can recall is when a friend asked me to try to pay for his French mobile phone bill online – it went through on Curve, but the website said it didn’t. Tx refunded in a couple of days.
      Try wiring to customer service and draw their attention to the declined transactions.

    • socceric says:

      Upon enquiring a decline, customer service said:
      – “someone in the payment chain didn’t reply in time. It could be us, your bank or our issuer or payment processor.”
      – “it’s not very common but it will occasionally happen”
      Asking for more clarity they said, “we received an ‘Insufficient funds’ message from your bank”.
      Note that I paid with the underline card which clearly means there were insufficient funds so their attempt to shift the blame to the bank failed.
      Finally, after raising a complaint their resolution was like, since you managed to make the payment with another card there is no issue here and for your reference Curve declines are normal to happen.

    • the_real_a says:

      Some CC have “soft limits” – you need to speak to the fraud department so the failed transactions can be seen. For example creation has a “same retailer” limit which it sees as curve, so the transactions need to be marked as “genuine” then the system learns to allow them in the future. It gets more complicated now curve is sending the MCC, as some MCC`s are considered high risk and have their own limits/checks. Again, it seems only the fraud department can see when a transaction hit these blacklists/rules as the transaction has not been “declined” just not approved. Front line agents simply say they cannot see any transaction attempt.

      All of my failed Curve transactions have been the fault of the CC but a bit of work and these restrictions were lifted.

      • the_real_a says:

        In my case with Creation, Curve seems to be reporting hitting these soft limits as “Insufficient funds” as i`ve followed up in every example with the fraud department and they confirmed it hit some rule. Some rules can be overridden and some cannot.

        • Ben says:

          Currently in Finland with a Curve card linked to Creation’s IHG card.

          I have not encountered any issue with it, from restaurants to stalls in markets …

  • Bill says:

    After two years of trouble free usage I contacted them with an enquiry. They inlgnored my question and closed my account due to my address being in Isle Of Man. I have messaged the support team and their CEO and neither answered my question – When will it be available to iom, jersey, Guernsey residents. I don’t have this problem with revolut….however i haven’t fully tried Revolut yet at all of my usual retailers.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      IoM as I suspect you already know isn’t within the FCA’s jurisdiction nor is it within the EU/EEA for license passporting. I don’t believe Curve have the permissions to operate there and I think the same applies to Revolut. The fact that you were able to open accounts has more to do with weak internal controls than anything else. I would suggest you try to stay under the radar if you want to keep your Revolut account!

  • Shoestring says:

    I’ve not been a fan of Curve – until now I have considered it great if you need to pay HMRC but otherwise largely useless (I don’t like the idea of paying a credit card bill on another credit card) – and I have Clarity for foreign spend, plus a foreign bank account & card out at our place in the sun. But I do now think 1% on my supermarket spend, on top of the benefits of the underlying card, could make me now give it a try.

    Only 90 days for the free card, though…is it worth the hassle to get 3 months’ worth of 1% on supermarket spend?

    • Freddy says:

      Free fiver with robs referral code aswell

    • BJ says:

      If you are a regular saver with the government bank it is a fine product, points grow on trees 🙂 But I cannot get excited about shoving stuff through Curve for 1%, to be worthwhile it is big spend to benefit and I would not want to miss out on section 75 for this.

      • Freddy says:

        Any reports of curve having a tantrum over saving transactions like they do when paying amex?

      • Dimitri says:

        Regular saver with the government bank 🤣 LoL

        Points can grow on trees indeed but I have always been scared to do that as you never know what happens.. and there is a delay to get your ‘interest’ back.

    • Worzel says:

      Squills 08:39:

      No.

    • Rooster says:

      Seeing as you can get discounts at Morrisons/Sainsburys/Asda/Tesco through discount schemes its not that good, but for Aldi/Lidl its something extra if you are already going there.

  • Nick M says:

    I’m on the Legacy Black plan… if we switch from Curve Rewards to Curve Cash, do we then need to start paying the monthly fee?

    1% back at 3 of the new retailers will be better for me than 3% on the existing selection – but don’t really want to pay £10/month for this at the moment

    I also imagine that if they are paying 1% back that they might monitor transactions a bit more? – eg if I suddenly starting spending £1k/month in supermarkets…

  • Soul says:

    Can you swap between retailers or is it fixed?

    If you can swap how long does it take to change between retailer/frequency?

    • Rob says:

      That I do not know … I am on the old legacy scheme so I can’t see it in the app. In early discussions there was mention of switching every 6 months or so.

    • PaulC says:

      Blue (FREE) is fixed unfortunately so choose wisely.

  • Michael C says:

    OT (Skyscanner): For a Singapore Airlines flight that costs 680 GBP on the airline page, Skyscanner is giving me 560 via Opodo: should I be suspicious? Or when I add in all the details on Opodo, will it wack on some bizarre “extra” at the end to make the price the same?

    Cheers!

    • MarkH says:

      Why not search the flight on opodo and see…

      • Michael C says:

        Sorry, you’re right – I have, but haven’t put in all the credit card details etc., and have never bought a flight off them, so just wondered if there was anything to watch out for. I didn’t realise these sites could be cheaper than the airlines themselves.

        • Shoestring says:

          not always a good idea to go indirect (OTA) if the saving isn’t significant, in fact it can be a very bad idea

          • Jonah says:

            I would say £120 here is significant. Over 20%. I’ve often bought flights from OTAs and never had any issues. Yes I know about consequences of not booking direct if the flight is cancelled etc. Never had an issue.

        • Jonathan says:

          Contact Singapore Airlines, asking them if offer a price promise.

          BA do (but ONLY on flights they themselves operate), Virgin Atlantic don’t, when I was going to buy a flight with them and saw the same flight being sold cheaper, (same baggage conditions etc.) they said by all means get the cheaper ticket, this was before their three different types of Economy tickets were launched.

          • Michael C says:

            Thanks for that!
            It’s for three tickets, so it would add up…

          • Michael C says:

            Found this, but looks like you have to pay the higher one then claim back…

            With our Best Web Fare Guarantee, you are assured that you won’t find a better fare for travel on Singapore Airlines anywhere else on the web. If, by midnight on the calendar day of purchase (based on local UK time), you find a Singapore Airlines fare that is at least £5 less than that quoted for the exact same flight, booking class, and itinerary on the website of a Singapore Airlines UK Appointed Agent, we’ll refund you the value of the difference. The original itinerary must have been purchased through singaporeair.com, originate from London Heathrow or Manchester Airport, for travel on Singapore Airlines

    • BS says:

      I had a similar thing with British Airways. An online travel agent was giving me about £80 discount compared to the British Airways website itself. I went through the cheaper option, and it was all fine and I flew the flight without problem. The difference was that the online travel agent was able to book in to a lower fair bucket that was normally only given to those as part of a package holiday. How do I fiddled I probably would have been able to get it with British Airways direct by adding a one-day car or something like that on

      • Rob says:

        The agent broke his deal with BA however. You were lucky that BA gives Avios and TP on these tickets as many airlines do not.

    • marcw says:

      Flights is all fine. Usually you can find cheaper plane tickets on skyscanner. The funny bit is that you can change from country to country and find the cheaper option.
      Additionally, skyscanner usually offers connections/itineraries and fares that airline pages don´t show, especially on the JBA routes.

  • luckyjim says:

    My card is black but I’m not paying a monthly fee. How can I tell if I’m on black Ts and Cs or not?

    • the_real_a says:

      Top Left menu (three lines) -> Earn Curve Rewards -> See Retailers -> If you are showing 3% on a range of retailers then you are on the legacy scheme.

  • Ben says:

    As I see it there’s an opportunity cost to using Curve for a supermarket shop because it would mean not using Amex. Particularly as they’ve offered me 2 MR for £1 spent as retention.

    So can anyone spot a retailer on the list who doesn’t accept Amex, as that would have genuine value?

    • James says:

      B&Q

    • Asha says:

      I agree. Feel this is an odd article, as the majority of the shops listed accept Amex. And as Rob always reminds us, MR are the best value.

      • Rob says:

        Except when it’s not. If you shop at Waitrose with Curve linked to the free Vigin Mastercard, you’re getting 1% + 0.75 miles. Use IHG Premium and you’re getting 1% + 2 IHG points. Use the Miles & More card and you’re getting 1% + 1.25 Lufthansa miles.

        All of these combos are substantially better than anything Amex can offer you.

      • Thomas Howard says:

        It depends what works best for you: 1p + 0.4 Avios (Lloyds)/0.5 Avios (HSBC) or 1 Avios per £1.
        If you value an Avios at 1p then using Curve with a lower earning Visa/Mastercard is better, if you value Avios higher than 1p then Amex will be better.

        • Genghis says:

          You can buy avios at 1p almost constantly. Cannot value higher than you can substitute them for cash.

    • Rob says:

      B&Q is the only big retailer which doesn’t take Amex.

      But Curve 1% + a good reward Visa / MC will beat any Amex reward.

      • Freddy says:

        Though you would have to account for the £10 per month fee with curve. Pricey if you don’t need or want the insurance products

        • Yawn says:

          Also a particularly good deal if you have a Tesco debit card for use at Tesco’s. It would 1 Clubcard point (so 2.4 Avios) + 1% (+ another .25 Clubcard point, if you link your Curve to Pay+). It is hard not to see this a rebate of part of the monthly Curve fee though. It’s not coming out of interchange fees!

          • Genghis says:

            But would Tesco bank recognise the spend as Tesco (1cc/£) or as Curve – Tesco (1cc/£8)? My best guess is the latter

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