Manchester Airport to re-open its lounges – and get 20% off parking

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• Lottie says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:24

  Stansted escape lounges are opening the following weekend 17th July, they also have a 20% off parking deal at the moment

• Paul74 says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:38

  Looking at the Radisson offer it’ll be interesting to see what you actually get for ‘complimentary breakfast’ in the present situation (at Radisson or hotels generally). A few items in a bag hanging from the handle of your room’s door? It’s better than a hotel charging for it I suppose!

• Andrew says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:51

  Meanwhile, Wirecard is back:
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53230026

  • RussellH says:

    30 Jun30 June 10:44

    And it is not just Curve users [not me] that are going to be grateful!

    Sharecast News reports:- “The FCA’s freeze left some vulnerable people, including holders of accounts at Morses Club, unable to receive state benefits. The regulator said it had worked with the DWP to arrange help for those affected and that cards should work as usual now or soon.”

• Lee says:

  30 Jun30 June 09:08

  Radisson offer, there is a really good deal for new Radisson Blu Maldives
  You pay a flat $238 (ex. tax) whatever the date – for 2 ppl, that’s $305 including taxes and fees
  Only the standard room – Overwater Villa with Private Pool is available
  The rate includes breakfast and $30 food credit every night
  You also enjoy some discounts: 20% off F&B, 25% off SPA and 30% off seaplane transfer
  The rate applies to travel dates up until 24/12/2021, although I’m not sure if there’s any blackout date

  • Kai says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:26

    Please mention the source when you quote…

    • DE says:

      30 Jun30 June 11:23

      It’s directly bookable on the Raddison website and app, I don’t think it’s available from third parties.

      • Kai says:

        30 Jun30 June 11:29

        I think you misunderstood me 🙂- that paragraph was a copy&paste from my blog.

        • DE says:

          30 Jun30 June 11:34

          Yep you lost me….more coffee needed!

  • DE says:

    30 Jun30 June 11:22

    I spotted this a couple weeks ago and snapped up a stay! Unbelievable bargain. They’ve been in touch and confirmed the details including the reduced Fee for the transfer on the seaplane.

    Tempted to book a second stay!

    Once someone books that rate the rate no longer comes up again for those dates it seems (might have just been specific to when I booked mind you) so it is limited in availability from that perspective.

• Max says:

  30 Jun30 June 13:23

  My understanding was that there was a fee now for any cash withdrawal using a Curve free card, is this not the case?

  • Anna says:

    30 Jun30 June 14:23

    They put something out about it applying to withdrawals once past a certain amount, but no-one ever clarified whether that was a monthly limit or for total usage. I haven’t used the facility since lockdown started though.

    • Andrew L says:

      30 Jun30 June 14:56

      The official free cash withdrawal limit with Curve has always been £200 per month, but as along as you don’t totally abuse the feature you will get away withdrawing slightly more. Some credit card providers, such as Tesco, will charge a cash advance fee for any cash withdrawal using Curve, but Creation (IHG) and Barclays (Hilton) don’t.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        30 Jun30 June 15:24

        Slightly more, is that 10% or more?

        • Andrew L says:

          30 Jun30 June 21:08

          Yes Secret Squirrel, 10% should be okay but I have been known to be slightly more cheeky and risk 15% now and again.

      • PJJ says:

        30 Jun30 June 19:40

        What about the Virgin Atlantic Credit card ?
        Any charges/interest from Curve or the card itself ?

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          1 Jul1 July 08:06

          @Andrew:
          Was a sort of quip comment, I regularly exceed that limit by 500%.

        • Andrew L says:

          1 Jul1 July 14:44

          I know @Secret Squirrel. Mine was too, although I’m not that irresponsible to go 500% over. It will come and bite you on the bum one day! Ouch

  • Doug M says:

    30 Jun30 June 15:10

    General advice with Curve us try it and see, not always very good at implementing their terms.

• First Class Fiona says:

  30 Jun30 June 14:26

  For all those who are slating Curve for being a pointless product, you really have no idea. Let’s use an example:

  – Use an IHG Premium card as your underlying card
  – Make one purchase per month, say £5k, to a place where people can save money. This earns 10k IHG points per month. Clearly this is 120k points per year, enough to get Spire and 1.5 nights on rewards points at a top level InterContinental hotel
  – Arrange for your £5k to come back from the place where people can save money and pay off the £5k on your IHG card.

  Yes, there is a small amount of work to do but this is clearly not a pointless use of a Curve card.
  The cost is £99 for the IHG Premium card and £14.99 per month for the Curve Metal. For that, you are getting 120k IHG points, worth approx £480, Spire IHG membership and one free night voucher from the IHG Premium card as you’ll have spent over £10k in the year.

  For anyone else talking absolute tripe about Curve being pointless, give me a shout and I’ll let you in to a load of other ways to maximise it’s use.

  • Charlieface says:

    30 Jun30 June 14:38

    And how quickly do they shut you down for abuse when you do that?

    • First Class Fiona says:

      30 Jun30 June 19:48

      @Charlieface, 2.5 years and still going ravishingly well. Next question, sweetheart?

      • Mark M says:

        30 Jun30 June 21:39

        Or, if you don’t ned the cash for day-to-day, invest in an ISA. £20k each per year.

      • Mark M says:

        30 Jun30 June 21:43

        And Curve has just put my annual limit up again – £300k now. No idea why.

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          1 Jul1 July 09:08

          Got 500k.

  • Andrew L says:

    30 Jun30 June 15:04

    Heavens above! £5k a month!! Crikey, how to draw attention yourself!!! 😳

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      30 Jun30 June 16:10

      Hardly. I send more than that to HMRC to pay the PAYE bill every month. Some people with larger or higher-earning payrolls will send in a LOT more…

      Unfortunately nothing manufactured about that…. HMRC don’t send anything back 😀 😀

      • Andrew L says:

        30 Jun30 June 16:41

        Paying money into your HMRC account isn’t quite the same class of abuse.

      • Mark M says:

        1 Jul1 July 16:07

        They will refund if you overpay on account, but I don’t know what the options are.

  • mark2 says:

    30 Jun30 June 15:20

    I agree in principle, but do you really make purchases of £5,000 through curve on an IHG card?

    • lumma says:

      30 Jun30 June 17:21

      Indeed, I can’t say pay a credit card bill in more than £300 chunks with Curve and IHG Premium

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        30 Jun30 June 17:28

        Blue or Metal?

      • First Class Fiona says:

        30 Jun30 June 20:07

        @lumma, Creation have daily limits for financial transactions like that. Painful but a necessary evil to keep the fraudulent tramps at bay.

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          1 Jul1 July 09:08

          Not anymore Fiona, to the back of the class! 😅

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    30 Jun30 June 15:25

    Why pay for Metal?

    • Andrew L says:

      30 Jun30 June 15:34

      I think to use Curve to deposit funds where she is may be classed as a curve fronted transaction, hence an additional 1.5% fee if not Curve Metal.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        30 Jun30 June 17:27

        No mention of those type of payment facilities in the original statement, only the place you save money which does not need metal (not yet anyway)!

        • First Class Fiona says:

          30 Jun30 June 20:02

          @Secret Squirrel, you need Curve Metal to avoid the 1.5% fee for transactions to a place where people can save money. In the scenario above, you earn far more in points than the £14.99 monthly fee for Metal, so it’s a no-brainer, my darling.

          You could also cover the monthly fee by shifting £1,500 per month on champers from M&S, if you select them as one of your six retailers for Curve rewards. Spiffingly good times ahead.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    30 Jun30 June 18:02

    No good for anyone who has not got the IHG Premium card as closed to new applicants so no double points. If anyone thinks Curve is no good, then should go back to school in Sept.😅

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      1 Jul1 July 08:08

      @FirstclassFiona:
      I’m still paying in using free Curve blue to that place you mention every week and no charges, back to school.

      • First Class Fiona says:

        2 Jul2 July 22:59

        @Secret Squirrel, correct, 1.5% is charged on HMRC transactions. Transactions to the bond house are not charged.

  • Anna says:

    30 Jun30 June 19:12

    Not impressed. If you were really good at this you would be paying Creation with your HH visa.

    • Andrew L says:

      30 Jun30 June 20:14

      Yeah great. Tell the world why don’t you Some things are really best kept to yourself!! 🙄

      • Doug M says:

        30 Jun30 June 20:19

        A few posts ago it was abuse, no you’re just worried others might find out.

        • Andrew L says:

          30 Jun30 June 20:34

          I like to think of it as a loophole, Doug M, and one I don’t wish to lose!

      • Anna says:

        30 Jun30 June 20:36

        It’s been mentioned many, many times on here. My real secrets I definitely don’t share!

        • Andrew L says:

          30 Jun30 June 20:48

          Oh well, I’m clearly an amateur then because that was my only real secret…well I though it was a secret until you turned up and burst my bubble!

        • Anna says:

          30 Jun30 June 21:09

          You can reassure yourself that there won’t be a rush to take advantage, especially as the card has been closed to new applicants for simply yonks now (as FCF might say).

    • Lady London says:

      30 Jun30 June 22:53

      HH…Another card that’s closed to new applicants. Are we seeing a pattern here?

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        1 Jul1 July 09:10

        Lol @ LL.
        Think people stating their current cards, not cards open anymore.

    • Crafty says:

      30 Jun30 June 23:24

      Jesus, keep a lid on it! Honestly!

    • Ashish says:

      1 Jul1 July 00:55

      I tried to pay IHG free for IHG fee but didn’t succeed.
      My post keep getting deleted. This site doesn’t like manaffacture spend chatting.

  • old bob says:

    30 Jun30 June 19:17

    “Talking absolute tripe” magnificently middle class, more please Fiona!

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      1 Jul1 July 09:12

      Old Bob, you need to get back to MS School if you think Fionas comments are good. Lots of holes like cheese..

      • The Urbanite says:

        1 Jul1 July 15:28

        And plenty to get Curve’s risk engine firing on all cylinders! That fired up engine can get you fired as a customer.

      • First Class Fiona says:

        2 Jul2 July 22:50

        @Secret Squirrel, got anything else in your banter locker apart from “back to school”, old bean? I’m hearing it like a broken record, please try something new next time. I bet your school report was a C-

        Anyhoo, back to my fine bottle of Barolo…

  • Uklzk says:

    30 Jun30 June 21:29

    Really interested the way you using the curve card.

    Sorry for the newbie question, what do you mean ‘where people can save mone’ any examples would be appreciated.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Jul1 July 00:57

      Somewhere National and has an & in it.

      • James says:

        1 Jul1 July 12:53

        Would this type of transaction incur credit card fees? Like uploading money into Revolut?

  • Ashish says:

    30 Jun30 June 22:12

    Yes. Can you tell kindly some other places we can do the manaffacture spending too? I’d like to use starling bank?

    • The Urbanite says:

      1 Jul1 July 01:21

      @Ashish I tried to top up my Starling card with a credit card at the Post Office. The till was hard coded to accept cash only and the assistant could not cancel the transaction so I got walked to an ATM to withdraw enough to cover it. Not one of my most dignified moments ever.

      Starling has its place in the wallet but not for generating points.

  • The Urbanite says:

    30 Jun30 June 22:41

    Eventually Curve will warn you off cash recycling, especially if doing so for Curve Cash. They will also warn you off excessive cash withdrawals.

    They’re well within their rights to close cards due to breach of T&Cs, especially where the breaches cost them money or could upset the credit card issuers.

    As for the people calling Curve pointless, not only is this a reverse pun if you will but a clever way to get people to openly post the cash recycling routes and shorten their shelf life!

    • First Class Fiona says:

      30 Jun30 June 22:53

      @The Urbanite, take advantage of cash recycling opportunities while you can. They all get closed eventually so ride the wave and enjoy the ride! Tally-ho!

      • The Urbanite says:

        30 Jun30 June 23:21

        @First Class Fiona I’m into it – I carry out my own research and find new MS routes a few times a week! I’ve not been in the game for long, but long enough to have seen routes finished after being openly discussed! Whilst others that have been open since I started a few years back remain unhindered – and have never made it to onto the internet.

      • The Urbanite says:

        30 Jun30 June 23:23

        Agreed everything has a shelf life!

    • Andrew L says:

      30 Jun30 June 23:41

      From reading between the lines, as long as you pay them £14.99 a month and can get away with it, Curve are more than happy for you to do it and if you don’t pay them £14.99, they’ll still allow you to do whatever you want to do, as long as you allow them to take 1.5% for your endeavours.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        1 Jul1 July 09:13

        You don’t even need to pay £14.99 for the privelidge, try it on the free card and all still works.

        • Lee says:

          1 Jul1 July 13:24

          SS, is there daily weekly monthly limit for put money in place start with N using free card?

    • Seb says:

      3 Jul3 July 12:04

      It’s worth point out that Curve now actively encourage such behaviour on their website!

      “Pay bills on your terms.
      Curve Fronted lets you pay your taxes and credit card bills with an underlying credit card so you can spread out the cost, and maybe even bank some serious rewards points in the process.”

• Rts says:

  30 Jun30 June 18:37

  If your curve card has expired, will the replace foc?

• Andrew L says:

  30 Jun30 June 18:45

  Yes. You will get a replacement card when yoirs expires, you just can’t apply for a new IHG black card.

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