Aug 21, 2017, 5:06 pm
Last edit by: RedSun
Curve card is a "debit" card or "spend" card that you can use at stores and where you can use debit card for purchases. It is not funded by the bank with cash deposit, but funded by a collection of other debit cards and credit cards. You can't withdraw cash from ATM since it is not backed by the bank.
It carries MasterCard logo and can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted.
Curve Card is offered in the United Kingdom and selected European countries. Not currently available in the US.
It carries MasterCard logo and can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted.
Curve Card is offered in the United Kingdom and selected European countries. Not currently available in the US.
curve card changes.
May 16, 2016, 3:00 am
#92
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: London, UK
Programs: Not much these days: BA Silver, Bonvoy Lifetime Gold, HH Gold
Posts: 1,326
Turns out I did have some charges duplicated, and no, I haven't seen any refunds yet.
I got a rather strange letter from MBNA whose card I've been posting most of my Curve charges to, saying that they have identified that my card number may be compromised although they have not detected any fraudulent activity, so they are cancelling my current cards on May 18 (this Wednesday) and sending me new cards with a new number.
It may of course be unconnected and I haven't had a chance to talk to MBNA yet, but obviously it isn't a panic, otherwise they'd have blocked my card immediately, but I do wonder whether they are concerned about some of the charges that have come through from Curve?
I got a rather strange letter from MBNA whose card I've been posting most of my Curve charges to, saying that they have identified that my card number may be compromised although they have not detected any fraudulent activity, so they are cancelling my current cards on May 18 (this Wednesday) and sending me new cards with a new number.
It may of course be unconnected and I haven't had a chance to talk to MBNA yet, but obviously it isn't a panic, otherwise they'd have blocked my card immediately, but I do wonder whether they are concerned about some of the charges that have come through from Curve?
May 16, 2016, 8:41 am
#94
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: London
Posts: 3,500
The MBNA issue will be that your MBNA card has been used with a retailer that has declared a data breach, and informed Visa / Mastercard who will start to reissue cards in case their details are being sold.
I must admit when I analysed the profit centres for Curve I totally missed the significant portion of income they are getting from these transactions they say are declined but charge your funding card regardless!
I must admit when I analysed the profit centres for Curve I totally missed the significant portion of income they are getting from these transactions they say are declined but charge your funding card regardless!
May 16, 2016, 2:06 pm
#95
Join Date: Aug 2015
Programs: BA Silver, hh Diamond, IHG spire Ambassador
Posts: 71
The MBNA issue will be that your MBNA card has been used with a retailer that has declared a data breach, and informed Visa / Mastercard who will start to reissue cards in case their details are being sold.
I must admit when I analysed the profit centres for Curve I totally missed the significant portion of income they are getting from these transactions they say are declined but charge your funding card regardless!
I must admit when I analysed the profit centres for Curve I totally missed the significant portion of income they are getting from these transactions they say are declined but charge your funding card regardless!
May 17, 2016, 8:57 am
#97
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: South West UK
Programs: OW Saphire, Club Carlson Gold
Posts: 236
May 17, 2016, 10:56 am
#98
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: South Coast, UK
Programs: Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 2,069
Off to Crete tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how we get on. I intend to use Curve for every transaction, (if I can, and excepting where Amex may be taken in any event )
If not, I have back ups of course, BA Amex etc.
If not, I have back ups of course, BA Amex etc.
May 18, 2016, 12:05 am
#99
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 14
It seems that way. I was just under my £5k limit. Did a £250 transaction going over the £5k that posted to curve and so far my pending Amex transactions but was declined by the merchant. Waiting to see if the charge goes through.
My 9 May duplicate transactions have now been refunded without raising this directly with Amex. So they did sort it as they said they would.
My 9 May duplicate transactions have now been refunded without raising this directly with Amex. So they did sort it as they said they would.
May 18, 2016, 5:16 am
#100
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: South West UK
Programs: OW Saphire, Club Carlson Gold
Posts: 236
It seems that way. I was just under my £5k limit. Did a £250 transaction going over the £5k that posted to curve and so far my pending Amex transactions but was declined by the merchant. Waiting to see if the charge goes through.
My 9 May duplicate transactions have now been refunded without raising this directly with Amex. So they did sort it as they said they would.
My 9 May duplicate transactions have now been refunded without raising this directly with Amex. So they did sort it as they said they would.
Its also a rolling month limit, not calendar.
May 19, 2016, 4:15 pm
#101
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: UK
Programs: BA GGL, BA LTG/GFL, Honors Diamond, Accor Platinum, Bonvoy Silver
Posts: 718
It looks like I have hit the £5k glass ceiling as the card is being declined at physical terminals (some online hotel purchases haven't been declined, but haven't been charged either, so I'm waiting for Hilton to cancel various bookings for non payment, which will be fun trying to reinstate them.)
Except I haven't, because of the multiple declined but still charged and eventually refunded problems. If I add the value of those failed transactions to my total spend, that totals ~£5k, but without them only ~3k.
As I'm now overseas, I'm having to use a standard 3% fx card for all transactions, taking the net 2% hit on everything. The ~£2k of failed but charged transactions were in the latter parts of April so looks like I'm stuck unable to use the card until early June.
The low limits and the duplicate charging problems are likely going to be the death of the card for me. If I can't use it without regular declines, duplicate charges and continually doing some mental maths on usage during a rolling 30 day limit, there's no point / too much hassle in carrying the card.
Uber won't accept the card - it can be saved in a profile but can't be charged to.
Just-eat will accept the card, but it will decline and still charge each time (refunding in circa 10 days, but like other declines, appearing to count to the £5k limit).
Travelex will decline the card without attempting to charge to it as they consider the card to be issued in Australia (!).
Beta test? Either (i) the Alpha testers did not use the card in a representative manner (possible but would seem unlikely) or (ii) Curve rolled out the Beta ignoring all the alpha tester discovered problems.
Except I haven't, because of the multiple declined but still charged and eventually refunded problems. If I add the value of those failed transactions to my total spend, that totals ~£5k, but without them only ~3k.
As I'm now overseas, I'm having to use a standard 3% fx card for all transactions, taking the net 2% hit on everything. The ~£2k of failed but charged transactions were in the latter parts of April so looks like I'm stuck unable to use the card until early June.
The low limits and the duplicate charging problems are likely going to be the death of the card for me. If I can't use it without regular declines, duplicate charges and continually doing some mental maths on usage during a rolling 30 day limit, there's no point / too much hassle in carrying the card.
Uber won't accept the card - it can be saved in a profile but can't be charged to.
Just-eat will accept the card, but it will decline and still charge each time (refunding in circa 10 days, but like other declines, appearing to count to the £5k limit).
Travelex will decline the card without attempting to charge to it as they consider the card to be issued in Australia (!).
Beta test? Either (i) the Alpha testers did not use the card in a representative manner (possible but would seem unlikely) or (ii) Curve rolled out the Beta ignoring all the alpha tester discovered problems.
May 19, 2016, 10:30 pm
#102
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
It looks like I have hit the £5k glass ceiling as the card is being declined at physical terminals (some online hotel purchases haven't been declined, but haven't been charged either, so I'm waiting for Hilton to cancel various bookings for non payment, which will be fun trying to reinstate them.)
Except I haven't, because of the multiple declined but still charged and eventually refunded problems. If I add the value of those failed transactions to my total spend, that totals ~£5k, but without them only ~3k.
As I'm now overseas, I'm having to use a standard 3% fx card for all transactions, taking the net 2% hit on everything. The ~£2k of failed but charged transactions were in the latter parts of April so looks like I'm stuck unable to use the card until early June.
The low limits and the duplicate charging problems are likely going to be the death of the card for me. If I can't use it without regular declines, duplicate charges and continually doing some mental maths on usage during a rolling 30 day limit, there's no point / too much hassle in carrying the card.
Uber won't accept the card - it can be saved in a profile but can't be charged to.
Just-eat will accept the card, but it will decline and still charge each time (refunding in circa 10 days, but like other declines, appearing to count to the £5k limit).
Travelex will decline the card without attempting to charge to it as they consider the card to be issued in Australia (!).
Beta test? Either (i) the Alpha testers did not use the card in a representative manner (possible but would seem unlikely) or (ii) Curve rolled out the Beta ignoring all the alpha tester discovered problems.
Except I haven't, because of the multiple declined but still charged and eventually refunded problems. If I add the value of those failed transactions to my total spend, that totals ~£5k, but without them only ~3k.
As I'm now overseas, I'm having to use a standard 3% fx card for all transactions, taking the net 2% hit on everything. The ~£2k of failed but charged transactions were in the latter parts of April so looks like I'm stuck unable to use the card until early June.
The low limits and the duplicate charging problems are likely going to be the death of the card for me. If I can't use it without regular declines, duplicate charges and continually doing some mental maths on usage during a rolling 30 day limit, there's no point / too much hassle in carrying the card.
Uber won't accept the card - it can be saved in a profile but can't be charged to.
Just-eat will accept the card, but it will decline and still charge each time (refunding in circa 10 days, but like other declines, appearing to count to the £5k limit).
Travelex will decline the card without attempting to charge to it as they consider the card to be issued in Australia (!).
Beta test? Either (i) the Alpha testers did not use the card in a representative manner (possible but would seem unlikely) or (ii) Curve rolled out the Beta ignoring all the alpha tester discovered problems.
May 21, 2016, 1:14 am
#104
Join Date: Aug 2015
Programs: BA Silver, hh Diamond, IHG spire Ambassador
Posts: 71
It looks like I have hit the £5k glass ceiling as the card is being declined at physical terminals (some online hotel purchases haven't been declined, but haven't been charged either, so I'm waiting for Hilton to cancel various bookings for non payment, which will be fun trying to reinstate them.)
Except I haven't, because of the multiple declined but still charged and eventually refunded problems. If I add the value of those failed transactions to my total spend, that totals ~£5k, but without them only ~3k.
As I'm now overseas, I'm having to use a standard 3% fx card for all transactions, taking the net 2% hit on everything. The ~£2k of failed but charged transactions were in the latter parts of April so looks like I'm stuck unable to use the card until early June.
The low limits and the duplicate charging problems are likely going to be the death of the card for me. If I can't use it without regular declines, duplicate charges and continually doing some mental maths on usage during a rolling 30 day limit, there's no point / too much hassle in carrying the card.
Uber won't accept the card - it can be saved in a profile but can't be charged to.
Just-eat will accept the card, but it will decline and still charge each time (refunding in circa 10 days, but like other declines, appearing to count to the £5k limit).
Travelex will decline the card without attempting to charge to it as they consider the card to be issued in Australia (!).
Beta test? Either (i) the Alpha testers did not use the card in a representative manner (possible but would seem unlikely) or (ii) Curve rolled out the Beta ignoring all the alpha tester discovered problems.
Except I haven't, because of the multiple declined but still charged and eventually refunded problems. If I add the value of those failed transactions to my total spend, that totals ~£5k, but without them only ~3k.
As I'm now overseas, I'm having to use a standard 3% fx card for all transactions, taking the net 2% hit on everything. The ~£2k of failed but charged transactions were in the latter parts of April so looks like I'm stuck unable to use the card until early June.
The low limits and the duplicate charging problems are likely going to be the death of the card for me. If I can't use it without regular declines, duplicate charges and continually doing some mental maths on usage during a rolling 30 day limit, there's no point / too much hassle in carrying the card.
Uber won't accept the card - it can be saved in a profile but can't be charged to.
Just-eat will accept the card, but it will decline and still charge each time (refunding in circa 10 days, but like other declines, appearing to count to the £5k limit).
Travelex will decline the card without attempting to charge to it as they consider the card to be issued in Australia (!).
Beta test? Either (i) the Alpha testers did not use the card in a representative manner (possible but would seem unlikely) or (ii) Curve rolled out the Beta ignoring all the alpha tester discovered problems.
May 21, 2016, 1:25 am
#105
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: UK
Programs: BA GGL, BA LTG/GFL, Honors Diamond, Accor Platinum, Bonvoy Silver
Posts: 718
Booking a hilton hotel stay for a non UK location is billed in the hotel's applicable local currency. Using Amex or another (non fx free) card directly will cost 2% more in fx fees, compared with curve. Kind of the whole point of the card for me, as I only use BAPP Amex to hit the 241 £10k, then all spend goes on a Bmi 2.5 avios/£ card. The 2% saving on fx is my personal benefit.