Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Lloyds Bank in talks to buy Curve at a knockdown price – what went wrong?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Sky News reported yesterday that Lloyds Banking Group is in talks to buy ‘digital wallet’ Curve for around £100 million to £120 million.

This would represent a discount on the £133 million raised during Curve’s Series C round in 2023, and is likely to lead to substantial losses for most investors.

Over £200 million of equity has been invested in the business since it launched.

Lloyds Bank in talks to buy Curve at knockdown valuation - what went wrong?

If you are a relatively new HfP reader (ie post pandemic) you may not have heard of Curve. Head for Points was heavily involved in its launch – I think there were six staff when I first met founder Shachar Bialick in 2016.

The main USP of the company at launch was that it issued you with a Mastercard which automatically recharged your purchases to an American Express card – or any other payment card stored in your electronic Curve wallet.

You could even withdraw cash from an ATM and have it recharged to your American Express card as a purchase!

Unsurprisingly American Express wasn’t keen on this and broke the arrangement within three months of the launch.

After this, Curve – frankly – was without a killer feature. It tried multiple ideas (Curve Rewards, Curve Fronted, Curve Flex – the latter a Klarna-style product) but nothing that would drive mass adoption.

Visa and Mastercard issuers began to turn against it. Curve had low FX fees so people could use a Curve Mastercard abroad and have the charge pop up – with no FX fees – on their usual Visa or Mastercard statement. This didn’t win it many friends.

Because Curve was a debit card during this period, you could also make pseudo-cash transactions which would appear on your linked Visa or Mastercard as a purchase. A lot of issuers didn’t like that either.

28th January 2019

The week of 28th January 2019, when I was travelling and trying to file HfP copy around other commitments, has gone down in HfP lore.

Lloyds Bank in talks to buy Curve at knockdown valuation - what went wrong?

On 28th January 2019, Curve announced a huge relaunch – and American Express was back as a partner! Suddenly, once again, anything you could fund with a debit card could be (re)charged to an Amex card as a purchase. Our relaunch article got 576 comments.

36 hours later, on 30th January, American Express withdrew. This HfP article got 788 comments. To put that in context, our readership in 2019 was only 55% of what we had in 2024. It was a big, big deal. I remember Shachar calling me in whatever hotel I was in that night for a chat.

This was effectively the end of Curve Card getting editorial coverage on HfP. It only reappeared in June 2020 when – in a fluke of luck – it had started to move its payment processing away from Wirecard (yes, the criminal enterprise that was Wirecard) just days before Wirecard was closed down.

In October 2021, Creation Financial Services – issuer of the IHG credit cards – closed down, with no notice, all IHG credit card accounts which had been linked to a Curve Card. It confirmed to us that we were right to stop recommending it.

Whilst it DOES still have some uses in the miles and points community – as the Curve discussion in our forum shows – it got too difficult for us to keep track of which underlying card issuers (Virgin Money, Barclaycard, NatWest etc) were penalising Curve transactions and which weren’t. There was also the risk that another issuer would ‘do a Creation’ and invoke a mass shutdown.

In the end, Curve never found the one killer feature that would drive mass adoption. It was a very, very niche player in a space which rewards – indeed requires – scale.

What does Lloyds Bank want from Curve?

The real question is where Lloyds Banking Group sees even a reported £100-£120 million of value.

Sky News believes that Lloyds is attracted by the idea of creating a smartphone wallet which can be used to bypass Apple Pay fees. Recent EU regulatory changes will force Apple to allow other apps to access the NFC functionality in your iPhone to process contactless payments.

Curve may finally have found a USP – albeit, it seems, after the money ran out. It is also a USP that can only be exploited by a card issuer like Lloyds, because it is the issuers that want to stop payments to Apple. Lloyds Bank customers are unlikely to be happy if they can no longer use their payment cards with Apple Pay and need to open a separate Lloyds app instead.

Lloyds is only likely to want the technology. I think it is unlikely that the Curve Card or even the brand will survive.

I like Curve founder Shachar and I give him credit for sticking with the project for a decade even when it was clear that it was going to struggle to get mass-market traction.

Depending on the liquidation preference the company had to give to raise equity towards the end – it is possible that some investors were guaranteed a 100% return irrespective of the sale price – he could walk away with virtually nothing for 10 years of work.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better.

To join our 70,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – August 2025 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 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 80,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £10,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card is doubled to 40,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 40,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £5,000 within SIX months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 40,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points 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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Platinum Card is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 120,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £12,000 within three months of approval. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th October 2025, the sign-up bonus on The American Express Business Gold Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Membership Rewards points. This would convert to 60,000 Avios! The spend target is changed to £6,000 within three months of approval. The card remains free for the first year. T&C apply. Click here to apply.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

120,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

60,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (203)

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

  • Swiss Jim says:
    13 Jul13 July 05:29

    I can but pray this doesn’t happen. There is so much value in Curve if you know what you’re doing. But I’ve always said, all good things come to an end. Now to continue to max out in what hopefully is the fair time we have left until the benefits are pulled. And hope Lloyds don’t go through with this (though I guess this move likely signals the end anyway…).

  • Daniel says:
    13 Jul13 July 05:38

    I will be very sad to see it go. It’s an excellent product – I’ve saved a huge amount in FX fees and earned points on the underlying card. The travel and gadget insurance was also well-used.

  • Pat says:
    13 Jul13 July 05:42

    The tricks that got shut down at Curve lasted longer at Revolut yet look who’s worth nothing. I often wondered why Storonsky got away with it.
    Bialick shows that LinkedIn isn’t real life and all that guff you read… all the endless puff pieces (Google his name, top result for me is a BBC article where he claims Curve will be worth $50-60 billion) are total BS. Fools and their money are soon parted.

  • DAN says:
    13 Jul13 July 06:33

    Too bad- I love my curve and especially the “go back in time” trick to move a transaction from one card to another.
    Debit fronted credit is great.. (school fees on a Barclaycard BA) and fee free cash withdrawal / no foreign ccy transaction fee while abroad is superb.

    I guess will have to investigate Revolute and Wise some more to see what they can offer to replace.

    Sure – amex would be awesome, but I still find a lot of value in it.

    • Xmenlongshot says:
      13 Jul13 July 07:42

      Club Lloyds now offers entirely fee free / no FX charges debit card transactions and withdrawals overseas – plus a lifestyle benefit such as movie tickets

      • Will says:
        13 Jul13 July 08:46

        That is not well advertised. Good to know

      • JDB says:
        13 Jul13 July 09:06

        So does First Direct and that’s a free account without any paying in requirements.

        • davefl says:
          13 Jul13 July 15:14

          And so does the virgin current account (global fee free debit card).

  • Sandgrounder says:
    13 Jul13 July 06:38

    Curve was always tech looking for a business model. Like many of these fintech products, they used MS from the miles and points community so their figures would look better while they came up with one. Never mind, I’m sure the next opportunity will come along soon, and create new codewords that will annoy the hell out of the killjoys!

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      13 Jul13 July 08:33

      It was rather amusing to see supposedly financially literate and intelligent men and women using silly code words like “bendy”, “beardy” and “Che” etc and so on as though that would somehow hide what was being discussed from the card companies.

      And then to see some of them get very annoyed when others used the real names of the cards as though some vital state secret had been leaked.

      • Sandgrounder says:
        13 Jul13 July 08:53

        We’ve got one in the house! 🙂
        It isn’t anything to do with hiding it from the card companies, it’s about stopping a simple Google search from making it far too easy for too many people to find. Because that’s when things get shut down.
        It was also fun, but this is the Internet and there is always someone with no sense of humour just a click away 🙂

        • BBbetter says:
          13 Jul13 July 09:28

          This. Even last week when I was booking a hotel at Solihull, I chuckled to myself.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          13 Jul13 July 09:49

          Things were getting shut down even when people were trying to be secretive about it.

          It was a ridiculous mindset from the start as if the companies did know what it’s users were doing or weren’t reading HfP and other sites.

          • Sandgrounder says:
            13 Jul13 July 11:03

            To apply a charge to users of a product like this is quite a process, it’s not just pressing a button. You basically need to make a business case, get clearance from policy and legal etc. Eventually yes the route gets out there and the losses makes it worthwhile to do the work but the longer that takes the better for us.

        • Spax says:
          13 Jul13 July 19:56

          Indeed. One of the few remaining Amex MS opportunities got closed a few weeks ago after it started to be discussed openly in Reddit since March. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. But seems quite suspect.
          And yes, they were aware (I was closed by them because of it), but it kept going for long after that.

  • Mr IO says:
    13 Jul13 July 06:58

    Sadly their customer service is shocking. Very slow, any fraud type issues sometimes took 2 days to respond to and then after initial contact, days more for a follow up reply.

    I like the tech but it was hollow with little customer service to match its offering.

  • Jjh4yb says:
    13 Jul13 July 07:04

    Barclays have yet to connect their Mastercards including the Avios card to Google’s wallet, so it’s the only way to make contactless payments by phone.

    I hold the premium version of Curve and I do get my subscription fee back in the benefits, mainly cash back. Many of the features I find very useful.

    I have however thought, that I can’t see how it makes money.

    • Alan says:
      13 Jul13 July 09:10

      Agree, I found that a really useful feature. Pretty appalling Barclaycard still haven’t sorted that for their Mastercards (works fine with Visa).

  • Rob says:
    13 Jul13 July 07:12

    For me, Curve is simply a way around being able to use my Avios Barclaycard with Google Pay as you can’t add it directly. I’ll probably drop my Barclaycard completely if Curve closes.

    • Andrew J says:
      13 Jul13 July 07:30

      Or get an iPhone.

      • BOB says:
        13 Jul13 July 08:59

        No joke iPhone has zero innovation since 13 and still has no foldable. And who else still uses 60hz screen not even £200 phones. No one in their good conscience should recommend iPhone these days except the ones who doesn’t understand technology

        • Will says:
          13 Jul13 July 10:15

          Perhaps users with no technical knowledge who find it the best solution to their problem are the best ones to recommend a consumer product?

          Few people know how most of the things they use day to day actually work on a technical level.

        • Dotun says:
          13 Jul13 July 11:59

          Want to correct you here – iPhone Pro models have 120hz screens

      • Alan says:
        13 Jul13 July 09:11

        No thanks! Have tried and much happier with Android.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

SPECIAL OFFER: Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card!

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points and instant Gold status!

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? Get the only free credit card with points which convert to Avios

SPECIAL OFFER: Get points worth 40,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold!

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!