Amex refusing to accept Curve (fronted on)

[Swiss Jim]

For the last couple of days, I’ve been unable to pay my Amex bill with Curve. Curve fronted is on, and definitely not over my credit limit on my underlying cards. Never had an issue before. Anyone else experiencing this?

Not the end of the world, but a very marginal pain.

[Toaster]

Worked ok for me a couple of days ago. I didn’t have a debit card setup for bill payments, added my curve metal then made a bill payment without any issue.

[BuildBackBetter]

Worked yesterday.

[can]

Worked yesterday too

[NorthernLass]

I had this exact problem this morning, tried to pay an MR gold but got the message that this type of card (Curve) isn’t eligible. Could it be a weekend issue?

Also, slightly off-topic – does anyone know how to change debit card details from Amex on desktop (as opposed to app)? I seem to have an old debit card attached and no option to remove it.

[Scottpat78]

I paid both BAPP and Plat fine with Curve Metal on Thursday without any issue.

What I did have one month is it failing, so I deleted the saved card in the app then made a payment with the card as a new card and saved it after it was processed. This worked for me so may be worth doing if it’s a saved card in the app.

[Swiss Jim]

Thanks everyone. The old deleting and adding again trick seems to have worked…

[NorthernLass]

Just re this, I took the plunge and upgraded to metal earlier but am still getting the message that I need to switch on fronted, even though it says the virtual card can be used immediately. Do I need to delete and re-add or will it sort itself out in a few hours?

[NorthernLass]

Just found an old thread saying you need to have fronted switched on even if you have metal, which seems to have worked even though that makes no sense!

[Toaster]

NorthernLass wrote:

Just found an old thread saying you need to have fronted switched on even if you have metal, which seems to have worked even though that makes no sense!

Why does that not make sense? With metal you get £10k of fee free fronted transactions per calendar month. Some people would prefer to enable fronted only when prompted so they know which transactions are using up the £10k limit and so they can keep track of how much has been used.

[NorthernLass]

Because metal is supposed to negate the need to use fronted? It makes no sense, because when I tried to use metal the first two times, I just got a “declined” message and no indication that I needed to turn on fronted. It still says in my app that if I use fronted I will be charged 1.5%. No sense whatsoever to this if I’m actually not being charged! There was no mention in the app of needing to turn it on to use metal, I had to trawl through old HFP posts to find this out. Also no option not to require turning on fronted if you’re able to keep track of your own spend. To add insult to injury I got no option to choose a rose gold card so it looks like I’m stuck with the black one 🤣
So basically, all that doesn’t make sense.

[Rui N.]

What doesn’t make sense is you thinking it doesn’t need to be on.

[Scottpat78]

I have fronted on all of the time. In my experience, fronted is only ever used when a payment type dictates it. I let Curve Metal work that out.

[NorthernLass]

Rui N. wrote:

What doesn’t make sense is you thinking it doesn’t need to be on.

Why would anyone think it needs to be turned on? It’s a function for people with the free card to be able to make payments which incur extra fees. Having the metal card changes this to a monthly fee. It’s not the same as tracking your spend.

[Scottpat78]

Curve Fronted always needs to be on to pay HMRC / NS&I or double dipping. All metal does is give you a £10k allowance per month as part of your £14.99 subscription. Of course it has other benefits too.

I pay HMRC and double dip and have never seen a charge above my metal sub. Might be worth signing out / force closing app so it absolutely knows you are now Metal subscriber?

NorthernLass wrote:

Because metal is supposed to negate the need to use fronted? It makes no sense, because when I tried to use metal the first two times, I just got a “declined” message and no indication that I needed to turn on fronted. It still says in my app that if I use fronted I will be charged 1.5%. No sense whatsoever to this if I’m actually not being charged! There was no mention in the app of needing to turn it on to use metal, I had to trawl through old HFP posts to find this out. Also no option not to require turning on fronted if you’re able to keep track of your own spend. To add insult to injury I got no option to choose a rose gold card so it looks like I’m stuck with the black one 🤣
So basically, all that doesn’t make sense.

[polly]

Anyone,

What cards are you connecting curve metal to now, we might have lost the old double dip hsbc route? Might have to cancel metal now…

[memesweeper]

polly wrote:

Anyone,

What cards are you connecting curve metal to now, we might have lost the old double dip hsbc route? Might have to cancel metal now…

I’m using a card that’s no longer on the market for new applications. If I didn’t have it I’d be flat out of ideas, TBH. Might even prompt me to look at the US or CH for a new non-Amex card.

[NorthernLass]

It seems to be working as advertised, I just still can’t understand why you need fronted on if you’re not paying an extra 1.5% (and Curve doesn’t tell you this).

@polly, I have HH visa and Virgin MC attached. It sounds like Virgin is a non-starter now so I’ll just continue paying my hairdresser via that route, but I’m hoping for new opportunities with HH now that we are not welcome chez Che any more. But as @memesweeper says points out, this is a limited option!

[Rui N.]

NorthernLass wrote:

Rui N. wrote:

What doesn’t make sense is you thinking it doesn’t need to be on.

Why would anyone think it needs to be turned on? It’s a function for people with the free card to be able to make payments which incur extra fees. Having the metal card changes this to a monthly fee. It’s not the same as tracking your spend.

You know you can pay fees with the Metal card still, right?
And that some credit cards may charge card advance fees for certain transactions, right?
It would be quite odd to have this potentially very expensive feature always on without a possibility of turning it off. (And god knows there’s plenty of oddities with Curve already.)

[NorthernLass]

Well presumably if you were going over the monthly limit, but that would be the point at which I would expect to turn on fronted! Clearly that’s not how it works though, thanks for all the clarification.
So if you have fronted off, you can’t make a transaction which would incur extra fees?

[Rui N.]

Fronted fees on Curve side no, but fronted fees are not the only fees that can be charged by either Curve or the underlying card.

[polly]

Thanks @Memesweeper and @Anna. Looks like am only now earning either or….shame, but thankfully got good use out of it.. will probably drop to free curve anyway. It’s still useful for non credit cards, and there are still entities who won’t accept a credit card. Hard to believe in 2022….