USA trip with Curve Metal with Virgin CC and BC Avios

[Ash]

Can I use Curve Metal in USA and the Virgin CC underneath and not incur any Virgin CC FX charges.

Curve would charge Virgin in USD?

I know Virgin do not charge FX fees for some eurozone – but do for USD?

Also have option to use BC Avios basic card with the curve – would that setup avoid FX fees?

Many thanks

[NorthernLass]

You need to read up on Curve – it can be used abroad and not incur FX fees but only during the week. There’s an article on HFP from a couple of years back which covers it.

[Wenby]

Weekends is 0.5% fee I think.

Be careful with using curve as the card which hotels take pre-authorization on if you were going to do this.

Curve doesn’t like multiple pending charges which hotels do.

Just come back from 2 weeks in the US and hundreds of pounds of pre-authorizations have duplicated which Curve is blaming the hotels for.
Fortunately it’s only taken a few days for someone to help from Curve.

[Reney]

Wenby wrote:

Weekends is 0.5% fee I think.

Be careful with using curve as the card which hotels take pre-authorization on if you were going to do this.

Curve doesn’t like multiple pending charges which hotels do.

Just come back from 2 weeks in the US and hundreds of pounds of pre-authorizations have duplicated which Curve is blaming the hotels for.
Fortunately it’s only taken a few days for someone to help from Curve.

Wenby which card did you back Curve with?

[Wenby]

Virgin Atlantic Reward +

[John]

Ash wrote:

Curve would charge Virgin in USD?

Well it can charge your underlying card in USD, but only if you want it to.

The default is to charge in the card’s home currency, which is GBP. In this case, the conversion will be done by curve at the Mastercard exchange rate, which is displayed online on Mastercard websites in advance, so you can know what it will be.

On weekends UK time curve adds 0.5% to the Mastercard exchange rate.

Curve also has a monthly limit for how much you can spend without fees (apart from the weekend fee), which depends on your curve tier. Beyond this limit you will be charged 2%.

To avoid the hotel problem do authorisation with a proper card like Amex then pay with curve.

[QwertyKnowsBest]

Wenby wrote:

Weekends is 0.5% fee I think.

Be careful with using curve as the card which hotels take pre-authorization on if you were going to do this.

Curve doesn’t like multiple pending charges which hotels do.

Just come back from 2 weeks in the US and hundreds of pounds of pre-authorizations have duplicated which Curve is blaming the hotels for.
Fortunately it’s only taken a few days for someone to help from Curve.

Had this same problem several times and Curve needed chasing to sort and they blame someone else. Avoid using Curve for pre-autherisations. In fact some hotels won’t accept it as it is a debit card.

Use another card to check in and Curve to settle at check out. I try to play the timing of Curve for payments to checkout. So if checkout is on a Weekend ask the hotel to take the expected charge as a payment on the prior Friday, if of course you can be bothered.

[buchanan101]

Recently used Curve for everything in New York in front of the BC Avios. was fine, hotel pending charge refunded within a couple of days. Yes 0.5% charge at weekend but I wanted 1.5 Avios per £ not 1.5 Virgin Points. Have Metal (investor freebie…) so unlimited FX at 0% or 0.5%

Had more problems with Cunard on the way over on QM2: they charge daily for on board spend (claim they are pending – they aren’t), then the whole lot again at the end, so double charging, but I don’t think this is a Curve thing: it’s common for them (they claim hotels do it – hotels don’t)

Charges started reversing a full 2 weeks after the crossing