Payments to HMRC (via Curve) blocked?

[laughingplace]

I pay HMRC regularly via Curve with Virgin Atlantic Credit Card underlying. Never had a problem. As of the last week or so, payments are now getting blocked with the message in Curve indicating it was blocked by underlying card issuer (Virgin Money).

Are others encountering this?

[Harrier25]

No, because I no longer use my Virgin Atlantic card for any fronted payments as they are likely to add a 5% cash advance fee these days.

[phantomchickenz]

I’ve had the same message when I’d entered my curve card details incorrectly. I would take it with a pinch of salt and not assume it genuinely is an issue with your Virgin card.

[NorthernLass]

I had a spate of this recently with my underlying Barclaycard (not to HMRC). I contacted Curve, who just kept saying the card issuer had blocked the payments (they hadn’t) but just before I started pulling out my hair it resolved itself and started working again! It went on for about 2 weeks.

Agree Virgin is very risky nowadays and I haven’t even added my new card to Curve since it arrived a couple of months ago.

[LD27]

I tried to pay HMRC with Virgin via curve in January without success and was wondering whether to try again this week. Doesn’t sound too hopeful, but will probably try again.

[SmartWithPoints]

I’ve encountered this with other cards too. I always use my Curve + Capital on Tap for HMRC payments which currently works.

[McFlyer]

Hi
I’m a Curve Metal holder and have had exactly the same issue when using Curve Fronted to pay HMRC this month. (Previously no problems at all up to June 2024 – I am using the £3k limit each month)
I wondered if it was because I was recently sent a new VA card to replace one reaching its expiry date but I contacted Virgin who said it is not an issue with them but rather a ‘soft decline’ from the Vendor.
I have sent a long chat message to support but I am not hopeful for a response before the end of the month (when my £3k Fronted allowance expires for Jul).

[McFlyer]

Hi Laughingplace,
Did you manage to get the issue resolved?

[sara]

I got this today too (Curve + VS + HMRC). Did anyone find a solution

[McFlyer]

Hi Sara,
Sorry for my ignorance but what is the ‘VS’ you refer to in your message?

I am still waiting to receive a reply from the (as predicted dreadfully slow to respond) Curve support team via the in-app chat function.

My thoughts are that it is some kind of issue with the Curve Fronted functionality but who knows!

[JDB]

McFlyer wrote:

Hi Sara,
Sorry for my ignorance but what is the ‘VS’ you refer to in your message?

I am still waiting to receive a reply from the (as predicted dreadfully slow to respond) Curve support team via the in-app chat function.

My thoughts are that it is some kind of issue with the Curve Fronted functionality but who knows!

VS is the IATA designator for Virgin Atlantic, so that card behind Curve. What you are experiencing is not any unintended functionality issue on the part of Curve but rather a block on the transaction before it gets to the requesting approval stage.

[Harrier25]

You’ll get a quicker response if you email support@curve.com.

[zio]

@McFlyer VA is completely clear in the context of your post. However, since VA is the IATA code for Virgin Australia and this is a travel focused forum, many (most?) contributors here use VS to refer to Virgin (Atlantic).

[Judge]

I was having the same problem (Curve + VS + HMRC). Never had any problems in the past. After trying for a few days and further failure this morning, I was about to give up on using this month’s Fronted allocation, when remembered I was sent an updated Virgin card this month. I have been successfully using this since I received it, online and in store, and via Curve, but I still had the old one as an option on my Curve account. I changed to this older card on Curve, and the payment went through without issue! Very strange, but clearly something to do with the updated Virgin card.

[laughingplace]

Hi all. Thanks for the various comments. Seems to be a widespread issue relating to the newly issued Virgin cards & Curve’s handling of them.

I have a support ticket currently open with Curve which was ‘escalated’ to a specific team a few days ago but nothing further back from them so far. I have sent them a chaser this morning.

Virgin also confirmed with me it’s got nothing to do with them and they are happy and not blocking transactions to HMRC.

Judge – thanks for your comment! Unfortunately I have removed the older one from Curve! I too want to stick the 3k through before end of today..

[Judge]

Thanks laughingplace. I had wondered if my not removing the old card from Curve had somehow caused a glitch, but obviously not otherwise you’d be fine. Please do let us know how you get on with Curve support.

[McFlyer]

Hi laughingplace & Judge,

I received a similar response from Curve support regarding the issue. My support ticket has also been escalated to a ‘specific team’!

I tried deleting my new VA mastercard from Curve app and was able to put my ‘old’ one back on but the transaction with HMRC would still not process.
I then realised my wife’s ‘old’ VA card was still on Curve and I switched to that as the Curve payment card and the transaction went through. Thanks Judge for that tip.

This seems to be an issue with how Curve handles the newly issued VA cards… let’s hope they can get this resolved ASAP.

[sara]

I just tried one more time (on the new Virgin card which failed yesterday) and it worked!

[laughingplace]

I can confirm it’s now working for me too! Thanks for the heads up Sara. It seems Curve have fixed it just in time for July’s fronted allowance!

[NorthernLass]

I had no trouble paying the vet with chip and pin today backed by Barclays (ouch, kitten!), but when trying to pay Iceland online for £40 of bread, milk and frozen veg, just kept getting the “something’s gone wrong” message in the app. Fortunately Iceland accepts Paypal and has forgotten to disable Amex!

[Harrier25]

Bread, milk and frozen veg from Iceland. Oh, how the other half live! 😂

[Rui N.]

Doesn’t Iceland accept Amex online without going through Paypal?
They accept Amex in store.

[AndrewT]

Websites and stores often use different payment systems. Not sure if it’s still the case, but when Amex first announced acceptance by B&Q it only worked in store and not online.

[NorthernLass]

Iceland offers excellent value and only charges £1-ish to pick, pack and deliver the next day!

They don’t accept Amex online, but PayPal yes. It’s probably about 10 years since I went in an actual store!

[rob-london]

You’ll get charged the cash advance fee from Virgin for paying HMRC, so what’s the point? The cost/point does not make it worthwhile… or am I missing something?