New Spending/Cash Card for use at home and abroad with £12 bonus

[Minxy]

We've just applied for the Curve card, which is a Mastercard debit card which you link all your existing cards to (debit and/or credit), It is free to use in the UK and abroad (to a set limit of transaction/value which is more generous than Revolut Cash Card). If you go via the HotUKDeals link you will get a £12 credit - note that when you go through to the Curve site make sure you turn your adblocker off otherwise the button to send you a text with the code won't work.

Curve Review - Is it the best way to combine all your cards? - Money To The Masses

In this independent review, we take a look at the innovative app Curve including how it works, its key features and how much it costs.

moneytothemasses.com

<Broken link removed>

 

[colyboy]

Many thanks they are’s checking
Colyboy

 

[Minxy]

Hubby's Curve card arrived today, activated it and ready to use now as I'd already added one of this existing credit cards to it ... after the first use he should get the £12 freebie within 3 days, I'll report back once he's done a transaction.

 

[Podney]

I really can’t see any great benefit in having this,and the downside of no S75 is something that might catch one out. But hey ho,each to their own.

 

[Minxy]

I really can’t see any great benefit in having this,and the downside of no S75 is something that might catch one out. But hey ho,each to their own.

It has it's own protection in place instead of the S75 ... have you read it all?

It negates the need to carry lots of credit cards/debit cards with you, you just need the one Curve card and can change it to whichever of your existing cards you want to spend on - for those of us without NFC ability on our phones it is a benefit. You can also go back and change where the charge has been allocated it if you find you've spent on the wrong card which could be useful for some people.

We've got it so we can use it as a back-up to our Revolut abroad as it has no ATM charges and this includes for those cards that would normally charge for this, I assume the charge is seen by the original card provider as a 'spending' transaction with Curve rather than cash withdrawal.

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[Minxy]

Hubby's Curve card arrived yesterday so I emailed the company to activate it and today he used it to buy some stuff from Farmfoods, it worked contactlessly (he took the pin just in case) and got an email to confirm the transaction immediately afterwards so can easily keep track without having to check his card account (you can turn emails off if you don't want it).

Mine arrived today so will try it as well but don't expect any issues with it.

There's an app for it called JOYN and in that you can choose which plan you want.

 

[63720]

I understood the ATM charges abroad were imposed by the bank where the withdrawal was made not the card company.

 

[Minxy]

I understood the ATM charges abroad were imposed by the bank where the withdrawal was made not the card company.

Some ATMs providing banks charge for using them but, however a lot of debit and credit card providers also make a transaction charge too when you use them at an ATM to withdraw foreign currency (some also for purchases too), eg HSBC for purchases/cash charge 2.75% for debit cards and 2.99% for using a credit cards. Using the Curve card however negates these charges from what I can ascertain as they are the 'intermediary' based in the UK so the transaction goes through Curve on their card and is then converted to £ and charged to the card provider as such.

 

[IanRJ]

For those in 'The Know' about Curve

I've read the Curve terms and conditions and can find no mention of non-UK transaction fees. With my Lloyds account for example, if I use my debit card in France or Spain they charge (in addition to the exchange rate) a non-UK transaction fee.
I was caught by this in 2018 when I was using it to pay road tolls in France, some of which were €3 and the like and the non-UK fee was £2+ each time.

Does Curve make that kind of fee charge too for using the £ card to pay in €'s??

 

[Minxy]

For those in 'The Know' about Curve

I've read the Curve terms and conditions and can find no mention of non-UK transaction fees. With my Lloyds account for example, if I use my debit card in France or Spain they charge (in addition to the exchange rate) a non-UK transaction fee.
I was caught by this in 2018 when I was using it to pay road tolls in France, some of which were €3 and the like and the non-UK fee was £2+ each time.

Does Curve make that kind of fee charge too for using the £ card to pay in €'s??

• Using Curve abroad is fee-free on weekdays, but there’s a 0.5% fee during the weekend (or 1.5% for currencies other than euros and dollars). Curve uses the wholesale interbank rate for currency exchanges.
• You can withdraw up to £200 a month from foreign ATMs without paying a fee (there may be local charges).

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[chaser]

Halifax credit card is always free as long as you pay it off every month
That includes hole in the wall in Europe.

 

[Minxy]

Halifax credit card is always free as long as you pay it off every month
That includes hole in the wall in Europe.

Usually there is an interest charge for cash withdrawals for the period from taking the cash out until you pay the card bill:

• Cash transaction rate
  The interest you’ll be charged for cash transactions. These include: withdrawing cash from a cash machine,; buying non-sterling currency; and gambling. Interest on cash is always charged from the date of the transaction.

 

[chaser]

Usually there is an interest charge for cash withdrawals for the period from taking the cash out until you pay the card bill:

• Cash transaction rate
  The interest you’ll be charged for cash transactions. These include: withdrawing cash from a cash machine,; buying non-sterling currency; and gambling. Interest on cash is always charged from the date of the transaction.

That is so but as has been discussed many times on here , yourself included if you pay it off immediately you get no charges whatsoever.
But in reality if you pay it off monthly the interest on a thousand pounds is pence.

 

[chaser]

I am not knocking your card in anyway as I know nothing about it, but is it worth it to have another set of people knowing your bank details?

 

[SuperMike]

I have a Curve card and it works well in this country and is the only card I carry now. Using the App, you can switch to whatever card you want to pay from. That is it’s main benefit. Abroad I would simply carry and use my Starling card loaded with Euros and being a proper debit card it can be used wherever like fuelling stations, which using a prepaid card you cannot do.

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[Minxy]

That is so but as has been discussed many times on here , yourself included if you pay it off immediately you get no charges whatsoever.
But in reality if you pay it off monthly the interest on a thousand pounds is pence.

Yes but you did say pay it off monthly, not immediately, hence my comments.

I am not knocking your card in anyway as I know nothing about it, but is it worth it to have another set of people knowing your bank details?

I know you're not, its just a way of having your cards linked to one 'account' so you only need to carry one card with you, it has other benefits too where you can go back to a previous transaction (up to 3 months) and change where it was charged to if you realise it went on the wrong card, something that you can't do with the actual bank card providers.

It will suit some but not others, it's just an alternative ... plus you get a £12 freebie so have nothing to lose by trying it out to see if it is beneficial to you. As for giving out details of you bank etc ... you do that every time you pay for something using a card anyway.

 

[Minxy]

Further update, hubby has now received his £12 free credit on the card and also his transaction at Farmfoods went onto his HSBC card without an issue as it's now showing on his HSBC account.

He'll now add some other cards to it so there's a choice of which to use as it's very easy to change in the app to the one you want the charge to go on.

Very pleased with it so far and don't anticipate any issues.

 

[ceejayt]

I am a big fan of Monzo. Also no fees when used abroad. Limits on how much cash you can take out of ATM but as a second card for contactless it is great - and free for the basic account which is all that you need

 

[The Lord Squid]

Monzo has been my main bank account for a few years now and I have found no reason to change.

 

[TDub49]

Monzo has been my main bank account for a few years now and I have found no reason to change.

Starling for me, backed up by a Halifax Clarity card and a Creation card. Experience of French motorway tolls tells me that you cannot have enough card options for the péage machines should you find yourself without sufficient cash.

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[Sapper520]

Starling for me, backed up by a Halifax Clarity card and a Creation card. Experience of French motorway tolls tells me that you cannot have enough card options for the péage machines should you find yourself without sufficient cash.

And French fuel garages / supermarkets.

 

[Sheddy]

And French fuel garages / supermarkets.

Especially at the weekends

 

[Minxy]

We have a Starling account too but that's not the same as having a Curve card due to being able to switch which credit/debit card account your dosh comes out of (even those providers who usually charge for use abroad will be free for such transactions), and only have to have one card.

Always best to have back-ups too.

 

[TerryL]

Interesting - I followed the link to the article in the first post and Bitdefender put up a warning about the website!

Most likely a false positive of course but..........?

 

[Minxy]

Interesting - I followed the link to the article in the first post and Bitdefender put up a warning about the website!

Most likely a false positive of course but..........?

No issue when we went to it, our cards came through and no issues using them either.

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