Forums › Payment cards › Other payment cards › Curve, fraud, and terrible customer support
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Not long ago I got an email, being an investor in Curve, about their CS improvements blah blah blah… Needless to say that those fabled improvements haven’t happened yet.
I started using Curve in the last few months as I wanted to push spend on my Avios Barclaycard. They have good cashback offers too, especially on everyday spend (TFL, Uber, Waitrose etc) but the problem was, at least for me, that pending transactions would be approved and there’s no way Curve can solve the problem. You have to call the underlying bank (Barclays) to get it sorted… it’s so painful that I stopped using the card altogether. I only get cash every week and that’s it.
I wish I had never invested in the product.
Having a nightmare time off it to with terrible support from curve.
On 2nd Jan, I received a flood of phone notifications showing transactions being
charged to my Curve debit card. When I realised what was happening I
immediately blocked the card. In the space of only 20 minutes,
there were multiple transactions, to multiple vendors and currencies
already charged totalling £19909.81Back and forth with support explaining basic things, they can’t even open screen shots properly.
Now curve support refusing to acknowledge something went wrong. In fact they are finding reasons why may I did something wrong! Saying it was authorised by biometrics or pin so it MUST be me!!
Then they said. Ok tell you what we will give you 50% back. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I think, mostly crying.
Ive raised with action fraud, 2 days ago complaint and waiting for a response. Then ombudsman then lawyer.
It’s nearly 20k! I would have to sell a kidney!
Ouch @Igadhia
Have you also contacted your underlying debit card company to explain the issue?
It’s very premature to be talking of Ombudsman or lawyer. This can be resolved and any money refunded this week assuming you have none of the culpability they claim.
As above, you need to get in touch with the underlying card provider to get the transactions suspended and investigated. You need to write both to Curve (for something this serious, write to the CEO and complaints) and the underlying card company confirming that you did not make any of the underlying transactions, that your card has remained in your possession at all times, that you have never shared the PIN with anyone and that your phone also remained in your position at all times so that no biometrics can have been. Obviously, each of these statements must be truthful.
The 50% offer is quite bizarre as these transactions are either fraudulent or they are not.
You should say to Curve that this offer (which sad to say is a typical fintech response notably from the big R) is fundamentally dishonest, attempting to protect their interests rather than the customer, thus breaching several FCA principles. Their statement that the transactions were approved by PIN or biometrics/ApplePay wouldn’t appear to stand scrutiny.
Insist on a response and full refund of the fraudulent transactions within 72 hours at the latest. You need to be really clear but not emotional or angry.
The other thing that makes card companies funny about quick resolution is that there are people making transactions like this and then pretending they were fraudulent. Three recently published FOS cases involving Amex where the Ombudsman decided, on the balance of probabilities, that the complainant had made the transactions. There’s rightly therefore less trust around as there are too many bad actors.
@Igadhia, the way Action Fraud works is that they gather any evidence relating to an offence then send it to the relevant police force to investigate, so it’s often a while before you hear anything, if at all. If, for example, the fraud originates abroad, it’s very, very difficult to detect. Even in the UK, most banks will ask for a court order to release any kind of information, and forces will only authorise the cost of this when large amounts of money are involved.
As @JDB says, the waters are muddied by increasing numbers of people making false reports of fraud, but the point about PINs and biometrics is very important because it’s unlikely that a real fraudster could access these unless you deliberately or carelessly shared them.
I also suspect some of these Curve and similar frauds are inside jobs and companies are to an extent prioritising their reputations over their customers.
I always keep my Curve and Revolut cards frozen unless I’m using them, it’s a bit of a pain having to remember every time you order an Uber or whatever, but I think it’s the best defence against Curve trying to fob you off like this!
My experience – very good service from Curve.
I had a fraudulent £120 transaction appear as a regular alert on my phone, and immediately locked the card, and submitted the relevant form.
Less than 24 hours later the charge was reversed, card cancelled, and a new one in the post. I received it two days later.
Faultless service in my experience, but appreciate YMMV!
But… perhaps it’s the more automated processes that only work well. 10 days ago tried to buy some SQ flights on the Curve card (from NZ, so in $NZ) to avoid the FX fee. My ‘daily limit’ was £500 short of the fare for four people, so I asked them to increase it. Got the usual “we’ll get back to you in two working days” line.
7 working days later, still no answer, despite repeated chasing, and have had to buy the tickets on Amex instead as I could see the options reducing every day. Cost me circa £500 extra in FX and credit card fees.
Boo Curve. Boo.
(Not Boo-urns)
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