Curve questions – is it worth it?

[Skywalker]

Aston100 wrote:

zxydxdm wrote:

In theory, you could pay card A with B then later on pay B with A?

Maybe, but pretty soon B will sting you in the A.

Touché! 😀

[polly]

@Aston100

Comment of the day! Brilliantly original….

[HenriettaLowe12]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

Trying to find new ways to earn Avios to boost my balance and I’ve heard Curve works with the Barclays Avios card. The suggested use was to pay off my BA Amex each month. However, this incurs a 1.5% fee so it only seems to make sense if spending over £1k a month, or I’m simply just buying points for 1p (which isn’t terrible?)

Here’s how it appears to work out, either paying the 1.5% fee on the free card or otherwise paying £14.99 for Curve Metal to avoid the 1.5% fee.

The ‘spend’ would be my Amex spend, which I’d then pay off in full each month using my Barclaycard linked to Curve, so in effect earning double the points.

Fee Structure Spend Fee Points pence per point
1.5% fee £1,000 £15.00 1,500 £0.010
£14.99 fee £1,000 £14.99 1,500 £0.010
£14.99 fee £1,500 £14.99 2,250 £0.007
£14.99 fee £2,000 £14.99 3,000 £0.005
£14.99 fee £2,500 £14.99 3,750 £0.004

So for anything up to £1k spend, as mentioned it’s costing me 1p per point. You can’t buy points this cheaply bar the Avios subscription (as low as .87p per point and I have this subscription). So somewhat worth it to top up my balance monthly. It then becomes efficient over £1k when then switching to the £14.99 Curve Metal, so for £1,500 Amex spend I’d then earn 2,250 points paying that balance off with Barclaycard, so the points would effectively be costing me 0.7p, then 0.5p for £2k spend, 0.4p for £2.5k spend.

All the other benefits to Curve Metal are a bit pointless to me. The worldwide travel cover seems good but the £750 baggage limit is oddly low vs everything else and insufficient to me if my baggage went missing. The cheap lounge passes I wouldn’t use as I have 4 already a year from Barclays Premier and Barclaycard. Mobile phone cover on my home contents insurance outside the home.

Does anyone do this for the above purposes, is my maths correct and hence there is some value? I’d only be using my Amex for £10k of spend a year to unlock the companion voucher, so would also want to cancel the curve metal which you can do after 6 months. I’d then be moving on to spend £10k on my Barclaycard and £10k on Virgin CC respectively to earn their vouchers, and you can’t attach Curve to the Virgin or Amex card to do the same ‘trick’ as above unless I’m incorrect. So assuming it takes me 6 months to spend £10k on Amex, incurring £90 of curve metal subscription charges, then the 15k additional avios accrued are costing me 0.6p-which seems good?

Fee Structure Spend Fee Points pence per point
£14.99 fee £10,000 £90.00 15,000 £0.006

It seems like you have done your math correctly and have found a potentially valuable way to earn more Avios points. However, it’s important to consider the 1.5% fee for using the free Curve card or the £14.99 fee for the Curve Metal card, and to determine whether the extra points earned are worth the cost of the fee.

It’s also worth noting that while you can’t attach Curve to your Virgin or Amex card, you may be able to find other ways to earn Avios points through those cards or other loyalty programs. It’s always a good idea to compare different options and consider the value of each before making a decision.

[Crafty]

NorthernLass wrote:

You have to be really careful if you are using any kind of 0% offer and not paying the full balance each month. The policy of some banks is that any payments go towards the interest-free payment first, which means that you then start racking up interest on any other spend you make which doesn’t fall within this category. Banks could decide to change they way they treat Curve at any moment (from earlier comments, Virgin, for example, seems to treat many transactions as cash-like).

Really? That’s pretty shocking, in a world of Treating Customers Fairly. Is this definitely the case?

From my own experience, it is NOT the case with Sainsbury’s Bank, nor with Hilton Honors Barclaycard

[Harrier25]

They must apply payments to the most expensive debt first, but still pretty messy putting new spend on a card when on a 0% deal.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

HenriettaLowe12 wrote:

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

Trying to find new ways to earn Avios to boost my balance and I’ve heard Curve works with the Barclays Avios card. The suggested use was to pay off my BA Amex each month. However, this incurs a 1.5% fee so it only seems to make sense if spending over £1k a month, or I’m simply just buying points for 1p (which isn’t terrible?)

Here’s how it appears to work out, either paying the 1.5% fee on the free card or otherwise paying £14.99 for Curve Metal to avoid the 1.5% fee.

The ‘spend’ would be my Amex spend, which I’d then pay off in full each month using my Barclaycard linked to Curve, so in effect earning double the points.

Fee Structure Spend Fee Points pence per point
1.5% fee £1,000 £15.00 1,500 £0.010
£14.99 fee £1,000 £14.99 1,500 £0.010
£14.99 fee £1,500 £14.99 2,250 £0.007
£14.99 fee £2,000 £14.99 3,000 £0.005
£14.99 fee £2,500 £14.99 3,750 £0.004

So for anything up to £1k spend, as mentioned it’s costing me 1p per point. You can’t buy points this cheaply bar the Avios subscription (as low as .87p per point and I have this subscription). So somewhat worth it to top up my balance monthly. It then becomes efficient over £1k when then switching to the £14.99 Curve Metal, so for £1,500 Amex spend I’d then earn 2,250 points paying that balance off with Barclaycard, so the points would effectively be costing me 0.7p, then 0.5p for £2k spend, 0.4p for £2.5k spend.

All the other benefits to Curve Metal are a bit pointless to me. The worldwide travel cover seems good but the £750 baggage limit is oddly low vs everything else and insufficient to me if my baggage went missing. The cheap lounge passes I wouldn’t use as I have 4 already a year from Barclays Premier and Barclaycard. Mobile phone cover on my home contents insurance outside the home.

Does anyone do this for the above purposes, is my maths correct and hence there is some value? I’d only be using my Amex for £10k of spend a year to unlock the companion voucher, so would also want to cancel the curve metal which you can do after 6 months. I’d then be moving on to spend £10k on my Barclaycard and £10k on Virgin CC respectively to earn their vouchers, and you can’t attach Curve to the Virgin or Amex card to do the same ‘trick’ as above unless I’m incorrect. So assuming it takes me 6 months to spend £10k on Amex, incurring £90 of curve metal subscription charges, then the 15k additional avios accrued are costing me 0.6p-which seems good?

Fee Structure Spend Fee Points pence per point
£14.99 fee £10,000 £90.00 15,000 £0.006

It seems like you have done your math correctly and have found a potentially valuable way to earn more Avios points. However, it’s important to consider the 1.5% fee for using the free Curve card or the £14.99 fee for the Curve Metal card, and to determine whether the extra points earned are worth the cost of the fee.

It’s also worth noting that while you can’t attach Curve to your Virgin or Amex card, you may be able to find other ways to earn Avios points through those cards or other loyalty programs. It’s always a good idea to compare different options and consider the value of each before making a decision.

What on earth?!? I never wrote that original post being quoted. 😮

[John]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

What on earth?!? I never wrote that original post being quoted. 😮

The quoting is very fiddly here particularly if you are trying to do it on a phone

[Rui N.]

It’s not difficult to see everyone can change the name on the quotes…

[Crafty]

Harrier25 wrote:

They must apply payments to the most expensive debt first, but still pretty messy putting new spend on a card when on a 0% deal.

Is it? Surely you just pay, each month, the minimum from the statement, plus any spend in that month?

Granted, requires manual intervention.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Rui N. wrote:

It’s not difficult to see everyone can change the name on the quotes…

Well quite an insult to be misquoted as one of the ppl incessantly asking about fight club!

[Harrier25]

Crafty wrote:

Harrier25 wrote:

They must apply payments to the most expensive debt first, but still pretty messy putting new spend on a card when on a 0% deal.

Is it? Surely you just pay, each month, the minimum from the statement, plus any spend in that month?

Granted, requires manual intervention.

When you pay the minimum payment the card provider must apply it to the debt on the higest interest rate first. That’s the FCA ruling from why back when. No manual intervention required. Happens automatically.

[Crafty]

Yes. That’s what I thought. So it’s not particularly “messy” spending on such a card. Don’t waste your credit limit worrying about it!

[wantmymoneyback]

I read somewhere that HSBC are charging for using through curve.
I have the Premier cc that I use through curve for a quarterly payment.

Any one know for sure?

[Peter K]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

It’s not difficult to see everyone can change the name on the quotes…

I’d never thought about it, but it turns out that yes it is.

[Rui N.]

He he