Curve changes from November 10th

[NorthernLass]

Remind me what you actually get from the free card apart from the £200 per month cash withdrawal (which may not be the case any more)?

[Harrier25]

NorthernLass wrote:

Presumably the HH card must be going at some point though!

Apparently not, according to Rob.

[Toaster]

JDB wrote:

Toaster wrote:

My annual Metal renewal is due Jan 10th. I’ll change the card used for renewal to Revolut or similar with no funds/card frozen (in case Curve decide to try and charge me for another year of Metal) and downgrade to Curve free plan after I have make a £3k fronted payment soon after Jan 1st.

It was good while it lasted.

You still need to give Curve notice of cancellation – just failing to pay the renewal by putting an invalid card won’t stop the auto renewal, nor is it an effective notice of cancellation. The card will continue to be usable and you have left yourself contractually liable for the full annual fee.

Isn’t downgrading to free (which I can do in the app) sufficient as notice of cancellation?

I think I should be OK using the downgrade option it the app:

https://help.curve.com/how-to-downgrade-my-subscription-SkK1hbGOq

[JDB]

NorthernLass wrote:

Remind me what you actually get from the free card apart from the £200 per month cash withdrawal (which may not be the case any more)?

I think GBIT will be about all that is left for the free card – ATM withdrawals will become chargeable. To be fair to them, they have given the freeloaders a very long ‘introductory’ ride before finally deciding to chuck them overboard.

[Jon]

Sigh, just as I was thinking of upgrading to Metal for an imminent large tax bill. Typical 😉

Quick sanity check if I may – have I got this right?

Given that the upgrade options in my app still show the usual unamended terms / schedule (£150 annual fee, £10k fronted fee-free per month etc)… If I upgrade now, and pay the £150 option, I can do £10k fronted this month, £10k in October, a final £10k in early November, and thereafter £3k per rolling 30 days (presumably the switch to rolling month kicks in on November 10th? Or maybe Dec 1st if I’ve already maxed out November…), then cancel/downgrade after 12 months with no penalty fee?

Still worth it, I think – 114k HH points for £150 if my maths is right? Assuming Curve lasts that long…

What have I missed? 😉

[Kelvin K]

NorthernLass wrote:

Remind me what you actually get from the free card apart from the £200 per month cash withdrawal (which may not be the case any more)?

My wife has the free card and tops-up her ISA every month, scoring Avios along with way – for clarity, this is non-fronted, and no fees.

I have curve metal and will probably keep it. The cashback is ok for the 6 retailers, and I do need to pay my vat and corp tax to HRMC.

[Ash]

Kelvin K wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

Remind me what you actually get from the free card apart from the £200 per month cash withdrawal (which may not be the case any more)?

My wife has the free card and tops-up her ISA every month, scoring Avios along with way – for clarity, this is non-fronted, and no fees.

ISA payments with Barclaycard?

I have curve metal and will probably keep it. The cashback is ok for the 6 retailers, and I do need to pay my vat and corp tax to HRMC.

[Chas]

Harrier25 wrote:

Chas wrote:

So that sounds like there will be no free limit at all – I thought I had read a comment saying that it was being reduced from £10k to £3k? I still haven’t received any communication from them, so have nothing to refer to.

“The said fee will still be subject to your subscription tier fee-free limit”.

Did you miss that important sentence @Chas?

Yup! 😄

[ThriceForgiven]

I’m waiting on the sidelines to see an official e-mail from Curve but these changes would effectively gut the product for me, and I’m slightly miffed as my timing couldn’t have been worse.

I subscribed (again after a hiatus) to a monthly Metal plan in late July’23. The minimum of 6 months will elapse in Jan’24, well past the Nov’23 ‘cut-off’ date. I’m curious about my rights as a consumer given I subscribed to a product which is now changing in November through no fault of my own.

Can I challenge the cancellation fee? I’m effectively trapped in a contract which has changed. I could just bite the bullet and pay the 2-3 extra month fee but it’s a matter of principles with this company which has always been so substandard when it comes to customer service.

Thanks for your input!

[Ash]

Do Virgin or Barclaycard charge for Metal ATM withdrawals in UK? or abroad? It’s ages since I did one.

[Lady London]

I would expect any cancellation or modification fee to be waived if you are locked into any length of subscription/contract, before the change is announced.

They’d have 2 choices – either not apply the changes in the period you’ve signed up for – the most reasonable option – or allow you to exit at no extra cost to you which is messier as you may be giving up benefits you’d signed up for if a change forces you to exit earlier.

IMV the way English law goes and the way finance providers are regulated lead me to believe the above though IANAL.

I am sure this would also be the way it should go even if they’ve put words in their terms somewhere that give them the right to change terms or fees at any time. They’d have to have a very very good (and unlikely to have) reason to make those terms stick. As generally for a consumer contract, and particularly for a consumer finance contract, my position would be that it’s an unfair contract term. Meaning it couldn’t be enforced and potentially even meaning other parts of the contract can’t be forced to apply too.

I would regard it as important though, to inform Curve in a provable way, as soon as you are informed by them of the new terms, that you do not accept them applying them within the term of your subscription/contract for the term that you’re already legally committed to. Ideally advise them of your refusal within 2 weeks and not later than 4 weeks. Again, this is my gut feeling as to what would shore up your position of either refusal or cost-free exit.

[NorthernLass]

Just checked and my sub was taken on August 28th, doh! Have added to my chat message expressing dismay that they have announced the detrimental change in terms so soon afterwards and basically what @LL says.

It did make me smile wryly that the first benefit is listed as “An exquisitely-crafted brushed 18g metal card”.

[NorthernLass]

I’m just wondering now if there’s someone sitting in the FOS office with their head in their hands having just read this thread 🤣

[Skywalker]

Lady London wrote:

I would expect any cancellation or modification fee to be waived if you are locked into any length of subscription/contract, before the change is announced.

They’d have 2 choices – either not apply the changes in the period you’ve signed up for – the most reasonable option – or allow you to exit at no extra cost to you which is messier as you may be giving up benefits you’d signed up for if a change forces you to exit earlier.

IMV the way English law goes and the way finance providers are regulated lead me to believe the above though IANAL.

I am sure this would also be the way it should go even if they’ve put words in their terms somewhere that give them the right to change terms or fees at any time. They’d have to have a very very good (and unlikely to have) reason to make those terms stick. As generally for a consumer contract, and particularly for a consumer finance contract, my position would be that it’s an unfair contract term. Meaning it couldn’t be enforced and potentially even meaning other parts of the contract can’t be forced to apply too.

I would regard it as important though, to inform Curve in a provable way, as soon as you are informed by them of the new terms, that you do not accept them applying them within the term of your subscription/contract for the term that you’re already legally committed to. Ideally advise them of your refusal within 2 weeks and not later than 4 weeks. Again, this is my gut feeling as to what would shore up your position of either refusal or cost-free exit.

@LadyLondon this link to previous ts and cs was referred to in their current documents:

https://cdn.buttercms.com/otNsvyDTdqPoaShVis2S

Changes to these Terms
14
Because these Terms will continue until you or we end them, we may need to change these Terms every
now and then. If we make changes that are clearly in your favour, we’ll tell you once we’ve made them.
Otherwise, we’ll give you 2 months’ notice before the change will come into effect – so you can easily
end these Terms if you don’t agree with the changes.

I’m no legal eagle, but that says to me they will give me two months notice if the terms are not in my favour.

First I’ve heard of these changes is on HfP.

Unless they are saying these new terms are favourable hence no notification…?

[JDB]

NorthernLass wrote:

Just checked and my sub was taken on August 28th, doh! Have added to my chat message expressing dismay that they have announced the detrimental change in terms so soon afterwards and basically what @LL says.

It did make me smile wryly that the first benefit is listed as “An exquisitely-crafted brushed 18g metal card”.

Since you are still in the cooling off period, you can cancel for just the £50 you agreed to if it was a Metal annual subscription. If you choose not to avail yourself of that option, then you will be on weaker ground. I don’t suppose the FOS is going to get so many complaints given that the max at stake is £150 and hardly anyone will be in for that much, some will just run to the end of their year and others will carry on.

[CarpalTravel]

Skywalker wrote:

I’m no legal eagle, but that says to me they will give me two months notice if the terms are not in my favour.

First I’ve heard of these changes is on HfP.

Unless they are saying these new terms are favourable hence no notification…?

That document says they come into effect from 10th November, so they have until the end of Sunday to notify you/us.

P.s. Apologies, on your post I hit the report link first by mistake, rather than quote.

[NorthernLass]

Thank you, @JDB, I will consider this.

The comment re FOS was intended to be a humorous reference to the Creation-bashing saga, obviously!

[Alex G]

The ability to use the Avios Barclaycard for contactless payments in Google Wallet.

[Rui N.]

Ash wrote:

Do Virgin or Barclaycard charge for Metal ATM withdrawals in UK? or abroad? It’s ages since I did one.

No fee on neither for ATM.
No fee on Barclays for Fronted transactions (£30k to go!).

[Skywalker]

CarpalTravel wrote:

Skywalker wrote:

I’m no legal eagle, but that says to me they will give me two months notice if the terms are not in my favour.

First I’ve heard of these changes is on HfP.

Unless they are saying these new terms are favourable hence no notification…?

That document says they come into effect from 10th November, so they have until the end of Sunday to notify you/us.

P.s. Apologies, on your post I hit the report link first by mistake, rather than quote.

No bother 🙂

True about having until Sunday, but given that the solitary member of staff that they do have is busy responding to @NorthernLass query – I’m not holding out much hope 😀

[Lady London]

NorthernLass wrote:

I’m just wondering now if there’s someone sitting in the FOS office with their head in their hands having just read this thread 🤣

This is going to sound b1tchy but based on the last two FOS judgments reported over on the Creation Bashing thread, it’s worse than that. I actually think the FOS wouldn’t even understand the issue here by themselves until it was explained to them very slowly by the first 100 complainants.

@JDB’s not here today so I’m letting rip 🙂

[Harrier25]

Unfortunately FOS are not fit for purpose and haven’t been for many years…just like the Tories in Government.

[Ash]

Slight tangent but the curve mobile phone insurance, is that limited to travel/trips? Where do you find the policy number?

Cracked my phone, may as well make use of the curve mobile insurance before we part ways!

[Carlos]

Link not working for me. Can anyone else get in?
https://www.curve.com/en-gb/terms-insurance-docs/

Am I covered for damage to my gadgets? (Metal customers only)
You will be covered up to the amount shown in the policy (see Benefit Table) for the accidental loss, theft or damage to your mobile phone.

If you signed up for your Curve Metal subscription before 24th February 2020 then please get in touch as the terms of your cover may differ.

Im a customer before feb 2020 has anyone had experience on their gadgets?

[Carlos]

Ash wrote:

Slight tangent but the curve mobile phone insurance, is that limited to travel/trips? Where do you find the policy number?

Cracked my phone, may as well make use of the curve mobile insurance before we part ways!

In the app. Account and then insurance

Looks like gadgets are no longer covered. Just mobiles