tangey

1) discussions with amex are happening
2) Website is siting ready to make an announcement
3) They have already planned for a refund policy / alternative arrangement.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the current amex/curve tie-up is far from secure, which is the headline feature of the card for many.

Raffles

I would stick with £35. Should their loyalty programme prove to be so fantastic that you regret now getting the higher earnings rate that comes with the £75 card, I'm pretty sure there would be a path to upgrade.

SQFAN

Thanks Raffles. Let's see how this pans out in the future.

parklife

I have used my Curve 3 times today in Dublin linked to my Amex and all working fine. Have used it a total of 10 times since Friday on 2 different Amex cards.

reclusive46

Atleast it doesn't seem to suffer from the timeout issue (where it couldnt authorise the source card in time and the supercard would decline) that the Supercard has.

710 77345

Do you believe what you were told? It doesn't seem to stack up to me, and I fear you're being spun a line to stop your referrals cancelling their cards for a refund. Do you have a view on your referral numbers? 5000 customers cancelling before shipping would cost them, say, 300k depending on the split between the basic card and the one with super loyalty points.

I have business continuity plans in place for all sorts of eventualities that could affect my business, but I don't have text that can be published accidentally to my website. There must be something going on between Curve and Amex for this to have been drafted, surely?

If Amex don't pull out, their cards are going to be heavily used to manufacture spend by people pretending to be businesses encouraged by forums and blogs. The published spending limits are going to a massive Avios generator for people who don't regularly fly.

If Amex do pull out, then Curve will have been totally outmaneuvered by rivals such as Mondo. Mondo has never offered Amex, but is better funded, offers cards to customers without a £35 fee, and has 10 times the customers Curve has (so has better income). Mondo is cheaper too (as it doesn't have the 1% fee for foreign transactions) and gets better reviews for its innovative app.

I just don't see how Curve survives against such rivals - there's many more than just Mondo in this space. It's interesting to see Curve are having to pay out £20 in cash for referrals, whereas Mondo are getting more traction without having to pay. Without these cash handouts and Amex, no-one would recommend Curve over its rivals.

So if Amex do pull their support soon, Curve will have a load of dissatisfied customers and a large bill for Tumi wallets. If their customers don't use the cards as they can't use their Amex, then Curve's income is sharply cut. Curve must have spent most, if not all, of the money paid upfront for cards - where is the cash going to come from to refund customers?

The signs are that if Amex do pull out, then Curve could collapse and its customers are out of luck if they need a refund. That's a big 'if' - but it's strange that they haven't answered any questions on this publically over Twitter for such a hip digital firm. Flyertalkers can afford to chuck £35 or £75 away on a punt that goes astray, but there's no way I would recommend regular bargain chasers keep their orders in at this stage until there's greater clarity on the situation.

parklife

I have only used my supercard abroad and had very few issues - probably only 2 or 3 declines.

SLZ

Could someone help me with the differences between the Blue and Black card aside from cost and colour as it appears all benefits are the same or am I missing something?

parklife

The black will earn double rewards in the Curve loyalty programme, but no idea what that will offer. I'd go for the blue as I am sure they will offer an upgrade path!

flashware

You mustn't use yours much then. I think the number of times mine declines is higher than the times it accepts.

parklife

Just summed them up and a total of 61 transactions so not too bad on the rejections.

Vvatts

Is your business solely dependent on partnerships with 3 card networks?

Maybe they thought it prudent to have the PR department draft text for any of the 3 networks pulling out so they would have it ready to go if something goes awry. Maybe they don't have good enough Web admins to know what they are doing or maybe they don't communicate well enough and someone found newer versions of that page and pushed them to live with inadequate testing or the wrong settings or whatever.

There'should lots of ways this could have happened. I don't see why FTers should care what really happened. Techniques work until they don't. This one still works, so I wouldn't sweat it.

710 77345

Maybe. It's just strange that Raffles reported that Curve had informed him that they were negotiating with Amex to continue accepting the card, and a couple of hours later had him remove the comments. And Curve have all sorts of queries over Twitter that they've ignored on this Amex issue.

I quite agree that if you have your card, you should use it as much as you can and not sweat it.

If you haven't paid for your card and can't afford to lose the money if they go in to administration, then I would be sweating.

Aus_Mal

Quoted for posterity. I hope you are right, otherwise there is serious egg going to happen. Shouldn't you also declare your vested interest btw?

"They know what I do. There are only taking 10,000 people in the first wave and a high % are from here."
(Raffles says: 3 March 2016 at 9:04 pm )

710 77345

I've heard that once the cards & wallets have been dispatched (and customers charged) Curve are going to roll back one of their features and put in a 2% fee for credit card ATM usage. Not sure what post-purchase refund options will be available if you've used your 'free wallet worth £60'. Clever sales approach to bundle that in with the £75 fee for the premium card.