Curve and Virgin Atlantic cards – cash advance fees?

[Loobc]

Hi all!

I stopped using my VA card through Curve due to getting hit with various Cash Withdrawal fees, have they change the MCC or is this still happening?

[roger]

This is one of the notorious card.
No fees for ARM usage within the fair use limit though.

[Anna]

I’ve never been charged for using it for normal spend, e.g. my hairdresser only takes debit cards and we sometimes also pay for stuff in foreign currencies and use Curve to avoid FX fees.

[Rui N.]

Never happened to me as well. Anything that is not fronted, never incurred any fees. And it’s my main card on Curve, basically all non-Amex spending goes through it.

[Dace]

Never had an issue with fronted payments. Not sure if others have.

[Rui N.]

What? VA introduced cash advanced fees last year for fronted payments. Are you saying your account doesn’t have those?

[AndyUK101]

Curve metal here, all Virgin transactions via curve (fronted or not) attract a cash advance fee

Changed sometime last year

[jj]

AndyUK101 wrote:

Curve metal here, all Virgin transactions via curve (fronted or not) attract a cash advance fee

Changed sometime last year

To be clear, this is only for cash transactions. Normal purchases don’t attract a fee.

[Rui N.]

Besides ATM withdrawals, what cash transactions can you do without Fronted?

[AndyUK101]

Just paid a bill with a virgin card, fronted on, and it generated a cash advance fee Virgin unlike any other card I have linked to curve

Admittedly haven’t used curve/virgin for a purchase in a long time but there is definitely a difference in how virgin treat ‘quasi’ cash transactions via curve

[Ash]

What was the bill paid to? It shouldn’t charge fronted if you are under your 10k metal allowance.

[Rui N.]

AndyUK101 wrote:

Just paid a bill with a virgin card, fronted on, and it generated a cash advance fee Virgin unlike any other card I have linked to curve

Admittedly haven’t used curve/virgin for a purchase in a long time but there is definitely a difference in how virgin treat ‘quasi’ cash transactions via curve

You claim that you know that all transactions using Curve attract a fee and yet decide to do a fronted transaction? All righty then.

[JDB]

Ash wrote:

What was the bill paid to? It shouldn’t charge fronted if you are under your 10k metal allowance.

You are confusing Curve fees vs fees charged by the underlying card, in this case Virgin which has a growing list of transactions that it classifies as cash type transactions. Neither having fronted on nor being inside your 10k monthly allowance protects you from underlying card fees.

[Ash]

True. Hence asking for clarification as to who was the underlying merchant. My guess is a financial services merchant. Bricks and mortar or online retailers virgin would recognise as such.

[AndyUK101]

Rui N. wrote:

AndyUK101 wrote:

Just paid a bill with a virgin card, fronted on, and it generated a cash advance fee Virgin unlike any other card I have linked to curve

Admittedly haven’t used curve/virgin for a purchase in a long time but there is definitely a difference in how virgin treat ‘quasi’ cash transactions via curve

You claim that you know that all transactions using Curve attract a fee and yet decide to do a fronted transaction? All righty then.

I’d have been happy if I was wrong, hence the test

For reference, I tried a loan overpayment and an amex CC payment – both of which are payments that people who use Curve would probably see value in being able to make via their Virgin card if it wasn’t for the cash advance fee

Not sure I see the point in using Curve to front payment for goods that you could just purchase using the card directly but alrighty then, each to their own

[Roberto]

AndyUK101 wrote:

Not sure I see the point in using Curve to front payment for goods that you could just purchase using the card directly but alrighty then, each to their own

Three answers there , one is that some people don’t take credit cards just debit cards. Someone mentioned their hairdresser last week had this rule.

The second reason is for the double dip, paying for a product/service with one points earning card and using curve to pay that card payment with a second card accruing a second batch of points/miles.

The last reason is HMRC and/or whatever MS you’re into. Some rip that, I don’t but have had chats with people on here who have “earnt” hundreds of thousands of points on this alone.

[NorthernLass]

I don’t think anyone here does use fronted when it’s not necessary – also even if you’ve got fronted on, it only kicks in for fronted transactions.

[ercb]

I made two payments to our vet for £100 each using Curve Card and VA underlying. VA charged £5 cash advance fee for each transaction. When I complained they said the merchant code used was 0742. I looked this up to find it is used by merchants providing veterinary services. So why the cash advance fees?
I could use ‘go back in time’ to move the transactions to another card but I am just intrigued why they would charge a fee for this category.
Also as it went down as finance you don’t earn points on the transaction so I might as well have paid on my debit card and saved the hassle.

[slidey]

Do cash advance fees show up as soon as the transaction posts on virgin cards or is it only shown when the statement is generated?

[Ash]

Mine shows up in the app up a few days after the transaction,

[Ash]

@eclifton, I could be wrong but I think the go back in time curve feature doesn’t reverse the cash advance fee applied by virgin.

[Dan88]

The MCC changed last year, I had been using it for months to pay my AMEX. I got hit with nearly a £400 advance fee

[ms]

@Dan88 Have you disputed the fee?

[stevenhp1987]

@ms, why should they dispute it?

It’s clearly a cash like transaction so they’re free to charge a cash advance.

[ekposh]

Anyone know if 4829 or 6012 will incur the 5%? This is for a wise money transfer.