Curve Fronted limit

[FF101]

Carlos wrote:

FF101 wrote:

Can anyone confirm this: If I leave Fronted switched on in the app and use Metal Curve linked to my credit card for my normal supermarket shop, will that spend come out of my £10k monthly Fronted allowance?

no, supermarket spend will not come out of the 10k and i will be surprised if thats the main contributor

You are right there ! I am going to use the 10k for NS&I, but wanted to make sure I was not wasting my allowance if I leave Fronted switched on when using for daily spend.

[FF101]

I have Metal linked to a Barclaycard and have not yet used any of this month’a £10k allowance. I tried a small payment to a financial institution with fronted switched OFF, and no fees are showing either in the Curve app or the Barc app as of the day of the transaction. May fees be debited later, or does this mean I may have got lucky and found a financial institution through which I can generate cost free Bac spending?

[The Urbanite]

FF101 wrote:

I have Metal linked to a Barclaycard and have not yet used any of this month’a £10k allowance. I tried a small payment to a financial institution with fronted switched OFF, and no fees are showing either in the Curve app or the Barc app as of the day of the transaction. May fees be debited later, or does this mean I may have got lucky and found a financial institution through which I can generate cost free Bac spending?

Which financial institution is that? I can check the MCC to see if it’s one that will attract a fee.

[robkeane]

The Urbanite wrote:

FF101 wrote:

I have Metal linked to a Barclaycard and have not yet used any of this month’a £10k allowance. I tried a small payment to a financial institution with fronted switched OFF, and no fees are showing either in the Curve app or the Barc app as of the day of the transaction. May fees be debited later, or does this mean I may have got lucky and found a financial institution through which I can generate cost free Bac spending?

Which financial institution is that? I can check the MCC to see if it’s one that will attract a fee.

Such a helpful guy !

[The Urbanite]

The value of Curve fronted really is diminishing. Seems an increasing number of card issuers are treating MCC 6012 as a cash advance or simply not paying out rewards and 9399 doesn’t seem to be that far behind. Almost all rewards cards I know exclude both from their schemes, Barclaycard is becoming the exception rather than the rule.

It’s barely worth paying the Metal sub for this feature any more, let alone a 1.5% surcharge.

[bhanorthy]

Curve have emailed me to warn me about my spending habits.

1.) I pay for metal so I can spend my fronted 10k every month how I see fit…
2.) You advertise fronted as a benefit on your website now you’re saying I cannot use it fully or as you promote it.
3.) If you’re that bothered why not just block the merchants in question entirely?

[0 post]

The Urbanite wrote:

The value of Curve fronted really is diminishing. Seems an increasing number of card issuers are treating MCC 6012 as a cash advance or simply not paying out rewards and 9399 doesn’t seem to be that far behind. Almost all rewards cards I know exclude both from their schemes, Barclaycard is becoming the exception rather than the rule.

It’s barely worth paying the Metal sub for this feature any more, let alone a 1.5% surcharge.

What about MCC 6211?

[Harrier25]

bhanorthy wrote:

Curve have emailed me to warn me about my spending habits.

1.) I pay for metal so I can spend my fronted 10k every month how I see fit…
2.) You advertise fronted as a benefit on your website now you’re saying I cannot use it fully or as you promote it.
3.) If you’re that bothered why not just block the merchants in question entirely?

This is where I believe Curve will come unstuck because as credit card issuers tighten up their rules, Curve are now unable to deliver what they originally promised, and many are paying £14.99 a month to recycle credit card spend, not for the included insurances package.

[sayling]

Ibblybibbly wrote:

Apologies if this has already been covered.

I have just converted to CURVE metal, with a view to paying £10k pcm to HMRC. Have just made first payment and HMRC charges a 0.1% fee with the CURVE card (underlying card is HSBC Premier Card / 0.5 avios per £). Whilst not massive, it will add up to £120 p/a on top of the £150 p/a fee for the card. So, each avios is only costing me .45p, which is still good, but more than I thought.

So my question is….is this correct that HMRC charge this fee as I haven’t seen it mentioned before ?

Late to the party, sorry. Check you haven’t been given a Commercial/Business Curve card – I had the same issue when I first used mine until Curve changed mine

[Nate1309]

I’m thinking of upgrading to metal to use the £10k fronted limit to pay HMRC. Has anyone used 1) Hilton Honors Barclaycard or 2) Capital on Tap via this route and know if points will be awarded? TIA

[cld412]

I’ve been using curve metal fronted for a while with the rewards+ card and it’s worked well. I’m a bit sceptical of switching to an Avios based card based on some of the comments I’ve read re certain other card providers.

I’d be interested in learning whether anyone has been successful in increasing the metal fronted limit? Are there any other alternatives to paying HMRC without incurring fees? If not, what is the optimal strategy for maximising £/point with these types of transactions (other than not missing a month!)

[Mick S]

cld412 wrote:

I’ve been using curve metal fronted for a while with the rewards+ card and it’s worked well. I’m a bit sceptical of switching to an Avios based card based on some of the comments I’ve read re certain other card providers.

I’d be interested in learning whether anyone has been successful in increasing the metal fronted limit? Are there any other alternatives to paying HMRC without incurring fees? If not, what is the optimal strategy for maximising £/point with these types of transactions (other than not missing a month!)

The metal fronted fee is a relatively new thing, 12 months or so. It used to be unlimited, so I wouldnt thing a hike in the limit is on the cards.

[yoyo]

ive downgraded now but in the all there’s a section with all the card limits.

when I first used this to pay for my hmrc bills a few years ago they regularly had to bump up my spending limits.

[VinZ]

I’ve been thinking about getting Curve metal for the free £10k fronted limit. Now I have two questions

1. i would do this just to pay off credit cards balances to maximise points. So pay amex with barclaycard avios, then the latter with virgin card, then virgin with some other cashback card. Is this allowed do you know?

2. If I found out that some transactions are blocked or if these card issuers put blocks on Curve payments, do I have an option to downgrade to a free version of the card? I currently am on Black Legacy. Or should I keep black legacy and get a second curve card (maybe hubby’s?) so I can cancel it when I don’t need it anymore?

3. Sorry I know I said 2 questions… am I obliged to get a physical metal card or can I avoid that? Don’t want having to pay a cancellation fee if I change my mind.

Thank you

[Rui N.]

1. Yes.
2. You can downgrade after 6 months.
3 don’t understand the relationship between the metal card and the cancellation fee.

[NorthernLass]

You can’t pay any kind of Barclaycard with Curve, and Virgin now charges for a lot of these transactions (there’s a separate thread on this), if that would affect your decision.

[Ash]

I dont believe you can pay amex/Barclaycard off eoth the curve/virgin. Virgin will charge. If anyone has, without the virgin charges, please share.

[Carlos]

If you like to pay fees, sounds like a great idea

[VinZ]

Ash wrote:

I dont believe you can pay amex/Barclaycard off eoth the curve/virgin. Virgin will charge. If anyone has, without the virgin charges, please share.

I used to be able to do it pre-pandemic, I would pay off Amex balances with my VA card. Not sure if things have changed?

[Rui N.]

Yes, Virgin started charging 5% to do that.

[rosco]

Sorry I am late the party, but I have just joined Curve Metal due to what they offer so forgive me if I’m a little behind on this one.
I have googled what I can but still am not certain so to be sure I have tested the water as follows.

Set up to always default payments to my wifes Avios Barclaycard, with my Barclaycard as secondary, then my Natwest Black as third.

I have Curve fronted turned on.
To test, I have just paid £100 in to my NS&I and also paid £100 off my wifes Amex. As said earlier, you cannot pay off Barclaycards. I did try but it warns me that I need to use a UK debit card. Can I also pay

Have I done this correctly? These two payments are not showing on my Curve card app yet but are for other transactions and they show immediately. They have gone through though and I have had confirmation. I am presuming because it is a Sunday. So will these two payments go through on our Barclaycard and will we get the 1.5 Avios per £1 spent?
If that is the case, I will just pay £10k in to NS&I, Amex or HMRC each month and get 15,000 Avios back each month, as that’s how I see it working from what they say. Brilliant if so, one years membership covered in one month! I shall get my wife and son a card too.

I am also in Miami right now, so making full use of the FX, but paying with my Barclaycard. That is correct isn’t it?

Oh and lastly, I have messaged Curve to ask for daily spending limits to be raised. They have replied to say that is standard and when I said I will go over for certain spends every month, they have replied to say they will look in to it. Anyone else asked and been successful?

Hopefully someone can confirm all the above please.

[SteveJ]

@rosco would suggest you read the below thread in full to get a feel for all the potential pitfalls.
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/curve-questions-is-it-worth-it/

[Carlos]

rosco wrote:

Sorry I am late the party, but I have just joined Curve Metal due to what they offer so forgive me if I’m a little behind on this one.
I have googled what I can but still am not certain so to be sure I have tested the water as follows.

Set up to always default payments to my wifes Avios Barclaycard, with my Barclaycard as secondary, then my Natwest Black as third.

I have Curve fronted turned on.
To test, I have just paid £100 in to my NS&I and also paid £100 off my wifes Amex. As said earlier, you cannot pay off Barclaycards. I did try but it warns me that I need to use a UK debit card. Can I also pay

Have I done this correctly? These two payments are not showing on my Curve card app yet but are for other transactions and they show immediately. They have gone through though and I have had confirmation. I am presuming because it is a Sunday. So will these two payments go through on our Barclaycard and will we get the 1.5 Avios per £1 spent?
If that is the case, I will just pay £10k in to NS&I, Amex or HMRC each month and get 15,000 Avios back each month, as that’s how I see it working from what they say. Brilliant if so, one years membership covered in one month! I shall get my wife and son a card too.

I am also in Miami right now, so making full use of the FX, but paying with my Barclaycard. That is correct isn’t it?

Oh and lastly, I have messaged Curve to ask for daily spending limits to be raised. They have replied to say that is standard and when I said I will go over for certain spends every month, they have replied to say they will look in to it. Anyone else asked and been successful?

Hopefully someone can confirm all the above please.

Expect a knock on the door from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[Harrier25]

It’s a totally crazy post. At least he should be closed down fairly quickly.

[duke]

Go for it rosco. Don’t ness about. All in mate!
Don’t forget to churn amex with maximum referrals