Curve – FX fees

[revatron]

Hello, just want to check my understanding of how Curve works before signing up. Planning on the Curve Pay X for £5.99/mth.
As I understand it the ‘month’ is calendar (Jan, Feb etc) rather than, say, 12th Jan to 11th Feb etc?

I have a couple of holidays abroad this year and am thinking about using Curve for the time we’re away as you can seem to move between the free and paid subscription when you want.

So if I have the Curve Pay X and use it in USA it will convert the $ amount to £ and charge it to my credit card (Avios Barclaycard) at the mastercard exchange rate but not add on the usual 2-3% fx fee?
That way I get the Avois without the fx fee? (granted, still paying the £5.99 to Curve but that seems worth it for a few thousand Avios on abroad spend)

Is my understanding of how it works correct? Am I missing anything glaringly obvious?

[AndrewT]

Apart from switching, Yes to all the above, with a monthly FX limit of £3333 before Curve fees kick in. You can also withdraw £300 per month from UK atm’s and a further £300 equivalent from foreign atm’s.

One feature you’ve missed is 1% cashback on non-EU FX spend – check the terms.

When you switch plans they send out a new card, so not something to plan to make a habit of.

[revatron]

Thanks Andrew. The £3k monthly FX should suffice – its basically the hotel and flights to pay for (flight as booked through my non-rev perks which is billed in the local currency of the operating airline). Day to day foreign spending on the card would be minimal.

[rob-london]

Hi All. I have another question on curve FX fees. I use my curve card to pay for a deposit for car hire in Spain, which was about £1,500. Curve charged an FX fee of about £50, however the refund of the deposit doesn’t seem to have triggered a refund of the fee. Is this expected? I’ve asked Curve for help on this but as usual, they’re taking ages to respond.

[JDB]

rob-london wrote:

Hi All. I have another question on curve FX fees. I use my curve card to pay for a deposit for car hire in Spain, which was about £1,500. Curve charged an FX fee of about £50, however the refund of the deposit doesn’t seem to have triggered a refund of the fee. Is this expected? I’ve asked Curve for help on this but as usual, they’re taking ages to respond.

There’s been another very recent thread about this. Curve (and indeed any debit card) isn’t suitable for deposits; it’s just not what UK debit are designed to do. If you have incurred fees – are they FX or Fronted fees and are they actually supposed to be refundable?

[rob-london]

JDB wrote:

There’s been another very recent thread about this. Curve (and indeed any debit card) isn’t suitable for deposits; it’s just not what UK debit are designed to do. If you have incurred fees – are they FX or Fronted fees and are they actually supposed to be refundable?

FX fees, not fronted.