Is Curve spending safe?

[M]

Hello, I am going on holiday shortly and would like to link my new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard to Curve to spend abroad to help with the sign up bonus.
I am not planning to do anything dodgy, only actual retailer spend (no cash withdrawals, no ernie, etc.). Anyone had any problems in that scenario?
Thanks.

[Rui N.]

How on Earth do you expect people to know the answer to that in a card that is 1 month old?!

[orudge]

I’ve been using Curve since day 1 of receiving my Barclaycard Avios Plus card (in part to compensate for the lack of Apple Pay), no issues for me. Haven’t done anything stupid with it though (cash recycling or trying to pay off other credit cards or whatever), just used for genuine spending.

I haven’t attempted ATM withdrawals with it (which I do do occasionally if I need physical cash), but given I have another credit card that I can get cashback on (with no interest charged) when using Curve for ATM withdrawals, I’m happy to stick with that one.

[dst87]

Nobody can say for sure this early on. I _hope_ Barclaycard don’t take a dim view of it, as it’s the primary way I’ve been using the card in-store due to the lack of first-party Apple Pay support.

This approach was suggested by Rob in another thread but of course if Barclaycard suddenly decide they don’t like it there’s probably not much we can do. I guess we’ll find out…

[M]

Rui N. wrote:

How on Earth do you expect people to know the answer to that in a card that is 1 month old?!

Well if 10 people responded with “oh no they cancelled my card” then that would be useful to know 😉

[NorthernLass]

Has anyone used it at an atm yet? Just wondering if it’s as obliging as its sister card.

[KenC]

Well, I did a test withdrawal of £10 on my Curve in London about 3 weeks ago. It went through OK and I got 15 Avios points on it.

Spurred on by this, I have, in the last hour, withdrawn 1,000,000 Ugandan Shillings in Kampala. Thats £227 including local bank charge. It’s gone through OK and is sitting in “Pending” on my Barclaycard. Hopefully, I’ll get my 340 Avios. When I did the London withdrawal, it was recorded on my Barclaycard account as “Services. Not Elsewhere C”. However, for my Uganda withdrawal the charge on my Barclaycard shows “CRV, Kampala Road ATM”, though that’s not the final designation which only seems to appear after the transaction is no longer “Pending”. Let’s hope it’s all OK.

[M]

KenC wrote:

Well, I did a test withdrawal of £10 on my Curve in London about 3 weeks ago. It went through OK and I got 15 Avios points on it.

Spurred on by this, I have, in the last hour, withdrawn 1,000,000 Ugandan Shillings in Kampala. Thats £227 including local bank charge. It’s gone through OK and is sitting in “Pending” on my Barclaycard. Hopefully, I’ll get my 340 Avios. When I did the London withdrawal, it was recorded on my Barclaycard account as “Services. Not Elsewhere C”. However, for my Uganda withdrawal the charge on my Barclaycard shows “CRV, Kampala Road ATM”, though that’s not the final designation which only seems to appear after the transaction is no longer “Pending”. Let’s hope it’s all OK.

It kinda reads as if you travelled to Kampala just to test this 😀 That would have been a story!

[NorthernLass]

1m shillings – what denomination are the notes?! That reminds me of when I used to go and stay with family in Rome and they still used the lira!

[PeteM]

I’m literally putting all my spend on this card through Curve as there’s no Apple Pay and 2FA doesn’t work on my card… Let’s see what happens!

[slidey]

Are cash advance charges visibile right away on this card or are they only visible when the statement is generated? I’m gonna need to get get some foreign currency from an atm next week and was planning on using this via curve but obvs dont want to if it will trigger fees.

[KenC]

NorthernLass wrote:

1m shillings – what denomination are the notes?! That reminds me of when I used to go and stay with family in Rome and they still used the lira!

Notes I was given were 20,000. Unfortunately the wad is so thick I can’t now fold my wallet. We also withdrew 20,000,000 (not on Curve this time). That was was approx, 9 inches thick.

[jayjay]

I’ve been using it with Curve for a few days with no problems. Weirdly I cant see any Avios being collected for these transactions..

[iamlost]

jayjay wrote:

I’ve been using it with Curve for a few days with no problems. Weirdly I cant see any Avios being collected for these transactions..

So definitely not “no problems” then… I’ve started using mine today with Curve purely to get Apple Pay support – but now I’m worried the spend won’t count to the SUB. Any other data points from people?

[iamlost]

slidey wrote:

Are cash advance charges visibile right away on this card or are they only visible when the statement is generated? I’m gonna need to get get some foreign currency from an atm next week and was planning on using this via curve but obvs dont want to if it will trigger fees.

I’m a Curve newbie (well, I’m not, but they blocked me in 2016 and I didn’t bother unblocking until I got this card now) — if Curve pass on the transaction/merchant codes to the underlying bank, wouldn’t they know it’s a cash advance and charge the cash fee as normal?

[PeteM]

iamlost wrote:

I’ve started using mine today with Curve purely to get Apple Pay support – but now I’m worried the spend won’t count to the SUB. Any other data points from people?

Every Curve transaction has awarded Avios for me and I’ve hit the bonus, which is in my BAEC account already.

[Cloud]

PeteM wrote:

iamlost wrote:

I’ve started using mine today with Curve purely to get Apple Pay support – but now I’m worried the spend won’t count to the SUB. Any other data points from people?

Every Curve transaction has awarded Avios for me and I’ve hit the bonus, which is in my BAEC account already.

Same here, all curve transaction went through alright, with Avios awarded and transferred to BAEC.

[ahow35]

Just on the back of this thread with a similar question. Does anyone have any experience so far of linking the card to Revolut? Any cash advance fees, avios still rewarded etc?

[NorthernLass]

There were a couple of predictions recently that Revolut usage would incur charges but I can’t recall if anyone actually came back and confirmed whether or not this is true.

[rum]

PeteM wrote:

iamlost wrote:

I’ve started using mine today with Curve purely to get Apple Pay support – but now I’m worried the spend won’t count to the SUB. Any other data points from people?

Every Curve transaction has awarded Avios for me and I’ve hit the bonus, which is in my BAEC account already.

Same here – Curve transactions are earning points just like regular card transactions. Haven’t tried doing an ATM withdrawal with Curve just yet, but will be doing that soon.

[M]

Lol, I just tried adding my card to Curve and obviously it does not work. I tried like 30 variations of my name and address spelling and nothing works. Any tips?

[PeteM]

M wrote:

Lol, I just tried adding my card to Curve and obviously it does not work. I tried like 30 variations of my name and address spelling and nothing works. Any tips?

Does your 3DS work more broadly? See my suggestion on that thread on here.

[Rui N.]

I’ve added my OH card to my Curve using my name and it worked fine…

[Gary]

Anyone tried if the tax collection service is ok?

[BuildBackBetter]

M wrote:

Lol, I just tried adding my card to Curve and obviously it does not work. I tried like 30 variations of my name and address spelling and nothing works. Any tips?

Have you done a chip & pin transaction first?