NEW: Curve Card launches cashback rewards

If you have a Curve Card sitting in a drawer, you may want to dig it out again.

Curve has launched a new cashback rewards programme. This allows you to earn cashback, credited to the ‘Curve Cash’ part of your Curve account, when you spend at qualifying retailers.

I don’t know:

• if this is currently targeted to specific people or card types
• if this replaces the previous Curve Rewards programme

You must opt-in to each individual retailer offer. There is no ‘add all’ option and, in a bad bit of design, you need to open each offer individually before you can save it to your account. It also isn’t made clear that you do need to opt-in.

What is Curve Card?

Here is a quick reminder for new readers about how Curve works. To learn more, read our introductory article to Curve Card here.

Curve Card is an intriguing payment product which has something offer to miles and points collectors.  The key thing to remember is that Curve Card is free – in fact, they pay you £5 for trying it – so you have nothing at risk.

Curve is NOT a bank account.  Curve is simply an intermediary card, a Mastercard to which you can link all of your existing Visa and Mastercard payment cards.

Via the Curve app you can select which linked card you want to use at any particular time.  Curve transactions are automatically recharged onto that card.  Even if a shop does not accept credit cards at all, only debit cards, you can still pay with your Curve Mastercard, which is a debit card, and earn miles on the underlying Visa or Mastercard.

You will even earn miles and points on ATM cash withdrawals up to certain limits.

You can find out more about Curve in this article. You can sign-up via our link here which gets you £10 for joining.

How do I find Curve cashback rewards?

Open the Curve app and click on ‘Rewards’ at the bottom. If you get a blank screen, try fully closing the Curve app and reopening it.

You will see a screen like this:

I don’t know if the offers list is personalised or not. This is what I see:

• 5% at fanatics.co.uk or kitbag.com
• 5% at Five Guys
• 5% at Coach
• 5% at Kate Spade
• 5% at Selfridges (£30 cap, note)
• 5% at Hawes & Curtis
• 5% at Quiz
• 5% at FatFace
• 5% at Harvey Nichols (online only)
• 5% at Kidly
• 5% at Amazon Fresh
• 5% at Mountain Warehouse
• £10 at HelloFresh

Some of these offers are doing the rounds on other cashback schemes, and are often more valuable. My MBNA credit card, for example, is offering 7% at FatFace, 10% at Harvey Nichols online, 10% at Coach, 10% at Kate Spade and 15% at Hawes & Curtis.

Is Curve simply negotiating poorer deals because of its smaller size, or is it pocketing the difference between what MBNA is giving out and its own cashback? That said, I haven’t seen a Selfridges offer anywhere else.

Does cashback replace Curve Rewards?

I don’t know if this replaces the old Curve Rewards programme. The Curve website still talks about Curve Rewards and does not mention the new cashback programme.

Curve Rewards was primarily a time-limited scheme for most people:

• free Curve Card holders got 1% cashback at three retailers, chosen from a list, for three months

• £50 Curve Black holders got 1% cashback at three retailers, chosen from a list, permanently

• £150 Curve Metal holders got 1% cashback at six retailers, chosen from a list, permanently

This new scheme offers higher rewards and the list of participating retailers will change on a regular basis.

There is no downside – except that so many credit and debit card issuers are now offering cashback rewards, it is increasingly hard to keep up with them, and their impact will inevitably drop.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – March 2023 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

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You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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.

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:

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

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.