Curve card is the worst thing to happen to the points game

[Chrisasaurus]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Apple Pay is a parasitic business model

…

Curve also loses money on every transaction you make like this, since the debit card fee they receive is lower than the credit card fee they pay out. For Curve, however, it is a way of inflating transaction volumes which is what they use to raise additional funding.

So not so much a parasitic business model as a pyramid scheme?

[memesweeper]

Chrisasaurus wrote:

Rob Burgess wrote:

Apple Pay is a parasitic business model

…

Curve also loses money on every transaction you make like this, since the debit card fee they receive is lower than the credit card fee they pay out. For Curve, however, it is a way of inflating transaction volumes which is what they use to raise additional funding.

So not so much a parasitic business model as a pyramid scheme?

It’s not parasitic if it’s making a loss on transactions. The “victims” of its current business model are the investors, unless and until it can turn a profit (or be sold). I’m not sure that meets the definition of a pyramid scam, unless all the existing investors are trying to recruit new ones to keep the boat afloat.

[Rui N.]

The Urbanite wrote:

It was easy to generate £600 a quarter of Clubcard points by paying into NS&I. Amex spend, child’s play – could spend well into 5 figures in one fell swoop and have it back in your current account within 5 minutes. And no dealing with scarce gift cards or that dirty scratchcard coating either!

We had someone once here saying that earning points on NS&I was a crime!

[Rui N.]

Chrisasaurus wrote:

Rob Burgess wrote:

Apple Pay is a parasitic business model

…

Curve also loses money on every transaction you make like this, since the debit card fee they receive is lower than the credit card fee they pay out. For Curve, however, it is a way of inflating transaction volumes which is what they use to raise additional funding.

So not so much a parasitic business model as a pyramid scheme?

Do you think that all (or almost) start ups are a pyramid scheme then? Or all companies that want to sell themselves off and try to inflate their sales volume, e.g.

[QFFlyer]

SteveJ wrote:

MS I agree is anti-social.

How on earth is it antisocial? These sort of comments are just those from people who are bitter because they missed out on opportunities imo. I mean, feel free to have your own opinion, I just don’t agree that there’s anything wrong with MS – Creation for example could have very easily stamped out what was going on years ago, and it wasn’t just Curve that was facilitating their particular form of ridiculously easy gaming.

[Rui N.]

Creation enabled the easiest form of MS, so it’s quite rich to claim that Curve was somehow worst. And, on top of that, most credit card providers allowed Creation-enabled MS without any fees.

The anti-social comment doesn’t make any sense.

[Aston100]

I don’t get the anti-social comments eithers.

[The Urbanite]

I also went through Creation’s T&Cs at various points between 2016 and 2020 and there was nothing in there that forbids MS. They probably don’t like it because the penny finally dropped that they lose money on every transaction and Curve card holders have been segmented as sharp customers. Not only will they be paying little interest but they’re circumventing Creation’s FX revenue stream.

[memesweeper]

The Urbanite wrote:

I also went through Creation’s T&Cs at various points between 2016 and 2020 and there was nothing in there that forbids MS. They probably don’t like it because the penny finally dropped that they lose money on every transaction and Curve card holders have been segmented as sharp customers. Not only will they be paying little interest but they’re circumventing Creation’s FX revenue stream.

Never mind the T&Cs, I met a man in a bar who was spending what I would guess was more than his annual salary on IHG Creation every couple of weeks. Wheres was their financial controls? Where was their source of funds/KYC checking? FCA should censure them just for that. It was scandalously badly run. Never mind MS, criminals love this this sort of idiocy. Give a card to a colleague (perhaps in a foreign country) in an organised crime gang and ship/launder remotely with impunity. You could then pay off your IHG card with anything, including basically untraceable crypto funded cards. Awful awful awful company. They deserve nothing but contempt.

Curve do basic checking and have consistently improved from a compliance perspective since launching. They checked my source of funds, twice. Good for them.

[TGLoyalty]

Rui N. wrote:

The Urbanite wrote:

It was easy to generate £600 a quarter of Clubcard points by paying into NS&I. Amex spend, child’s play – could spend well into 5 figures in one fell swoop and have it back in your current account within 5 minutes. And no dealing with scarce gift cards or that dirty scratchcard coating either!

We had someone once here saying that earning points on NS&I was a crime!

I like to think of it more like a not so secret promotion. A happy surprise 🙂

[wideboys182]

Creation and Virgin have finally decided to close their MS loop holes. Curve is a good product and deep down does promote MS and always has but as people say there are others.

PayPal, NS&I, Creation, Virgin, Curve.

There will be another one (if no already)

[Rui N.]

There are other cards in this world besides Creation and Virgin.

[The Urbanite]

Rui N. wrote:

There are other cards in this world besides Creation and Virgin.

Lloyds also tightened up on cash advance logic which extends to MBNA, as did HSBC which includes the M&S and John Lewis card, a shame as those cards are some of the best in the game. Tesco too and Sainsbury’s is about to go in the sock drawer as well.

Outside of these banks there isn’t a huge amount to play with. It’s fair to say Barclaycard are still good for it until they identify and shut down MS accounts which they seem to have been moderately proactive with. Capital on Tap have always been anti-MS. The prepaid rewards card operators are slowly getting smarter. The crypto cards have gone from profit generating points collecting routes to offering very little value!

I’ve found the only way to really keep things going is to diversify and think outside of the box. Thinking of ways to generate spend which are a bit more elaborate than bog standard MS. The game might be up for those relying on Revolut/NS&I deposits and Curve but still tonnes of points collecting routes to play with and new ones being uncovered daily.

[Harrier25]

Wait until Amex block Curve payments. Then you’ll get some unhappy people on here!