What is the deal with Curve international cashback?

[tomtom135]

Just got back from a trip to the US and Curve cash is showing cashback oddly for just two transactions, one at Starbucks and one at a hotel. I’m sure I read somewhere something about 1% cashback on international spend outside of Europe but I don’t get why it has randomly earned for these two transactions. Any ideas?

[AndrewT]

It’s in the app with the rather daft title of ‘Killer FX’, but it still just says coming soon.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Mine started paying out on all US transactions from Sunday onwards. None before. I presume the cashback started on Sunday.

[tomtom135]

How unlucky is that for timing? Sunday was our last day and I just realised Starbucks was the last transaction we made before flying home… the hotel was an earlier one but took a while to charge the card. Missed out on about £80 worth of cash back.

[drdan]

I’m now in the US as of 3 days ago.

I signed up for metal at half off for 3 months (£4.99/MTH) to pay Self Assessment at £1k a month fronted.

Used it here in the USA with Barclaycard Avios behind it. I seem to be earning 1% cashback everywhere except Uber… Fine by me!!

[AndrewT]

The app has now been updated to confirm 1% cashback on all spend outside the UK & Europe.

[drdan]

Just another update whilst I’m still in the USA for 3 weeks.

So having got the black upgrade (not metal) from the blue for a fiver a month for 3 months, I’m paying £1k to HMRC a month (my SA bill is £2.8k total), will draw £500 cash from a UK ATM a month when I’m home (Barclays Avios card behind it) and with zero FX I’m earning avios (max £2k/month spend) 1% cash back on top (posting 1-3 days after each spend as curve cash) as well as an extra 1% on Aldi shopping as 1 of my 6 cash back merchants (worth a drive for the savings Vs Kroger stores and the like).

I can see me doing this for maybe 3 months every year when travelling to do all of the above again…

[rams]

AndrewT wrote:

The app has now been updated to confirm 1% cashback on all spend outside the UK & Europe.

I got 1% back on my purchase of Hyatt points so it’s just non GBP spend rather than needing to be outside Europe.

[BBbetter]

rams wrote:

AndrewT wrote:

The app has now been updated to confirm 1% cashback on all spend outside the UK & Europe.

I got 1% back on my purchase of Hyatt points so it’s just non GBP spend rather than needing to be outside Europe.

Aren’t Hyatt points sold in USD? How does that prove cashback on EUR payments?

[TGLoyalty]

@rams surely as it’s Hyatt via points.com it’ll be coded as a US based transaction so not sure that proves it’s just not GBP

It needs to be interregional to earn cashback

https://help.curve.com/en_us/what-is-an-interregional-transaction-BJw2pdPYC

[BBbetter]

drdan wrote:

as well as an extra 1% on Aldi shopping as 1 of my 6 cash back merchants (worth a drive for the savings Vs Kroger stores and the like).

Yep, this one is interesting. I selected McD and received cashback when I spent at a Mcd in Turkey!

[rams]

Sorry badly worked. Spend doesn’t need to be outside Europe. It’s non gbp and European spend wherever you are

[TGLoyalty]

rams wrote:

Sorry badly worked. Spend doesn’t need to be outside Europe. It’s non gbp and European spend wherever you are

It does need to be as per the link I posted.

Why do you think points.con spend would be processed by a merchant account based in Europe where ever you are?

Points.com HQ is in Canada so you’d expect it to be coded as a North American region merchant.

[AndrewT]

With GBP up to $1.33, the 1% cashback via Curve and yet another IHG 100% bonus (almost becoming like the DFS sale) buying IHG points currently comes in at 0.371p.

[drdan]

AndrewT wrote:

With GBP up to $1.33, the 1% cashback via Curve and yet another IHG 100% bonus (almost becoming like the DFS sale) buying IHG points currently comes in at 0.371p.

Because it goes thro points.com….

You might consider topc@$hback.COM. That’s COM

[Mankhool]

Amazon is one of the retailers for 1% cash back on my Curve Metal. I get 1% on Amazon be it UK ,USA or India. This week i spent 1k on Amazon USA, I got 1% back instantly and another 1% today for the new International cash back.

[PeteM]

Out of interest, how does the 1% back show up – as a separate transaction?

[strickers]

It’s working really well so far, takes a few days then is credited to Curve cash. If you make a transaction below your cash balance then it’s taken from there irrespective of which card you have selected, I’ve been really impressed.

[PeteM]

Excellent, thanks! USA trip coming up, so will defo make good use of it.

[AndrewT]

strickers wrote:

If you make a transaction below your cash balance then it’s taken from there irrespective of which card you have selected, I’ve been really impressed.

Just for completeness, you can choose whether or not it uses Curve Cash by default for new transactions below the cash balance. Configurable in the Curve Cash options. The only reason I can think of for not doing it is that you don’t earn cashback if you pay using Curve cash itself, although for individual small transactions the difference is obviously not significant.

[strickers]

@AndrewT Thanks for that, you are absolutely correct, the cashback is generally covering the cost of fridge magnets or the odd round. 1% of 1% is pretty negligible.

[cin3]

BBbetter wrote:

drdan wrote:

as well as an extra 1% on Aldi shopping as 1 of my 6 cash back merchants (worth a drive for the savings Vs Kroger stores and the like).

Yep, this one is interesting. I selected McD and received cashback when I spent at a Mcd in Turkey!

That’s pretty standard. Most cards’ per-merchant CB is simple a regex statement on merchant field.

[captainkirk]

Worked well for me in USA for all purchases. Bought a new apple watch. Got 1% cashback for buying in USD. Got another 1% as apple is one of my permanent cashback retailers.