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Curve Card is now working with American Express for beta testers – this is how it works

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(EDIT:  Curve has changed a lot since this article was published.  Please do not rely on the information here.  Instead, please click here to read our detailed 2020 Curve review, which includes a link for a free £10 credit when you sign up.)

Curve Card is an all-in-one payment wallet and aggregator that is popular amongst Head for Points readers.  I describe Curve in detail here, but in summary:

Curve Card (a debit Mastercard) is free – in fact Curve will pay you £10 for trying it out if you use our link

You can link any other Visa or Mastercard to Curve – so the smart thing to do is to link a miles or points earning card

You can pay DEBIT card bills with Curve which are recharged to your linked Visa or Mastercard.  Importantly, this recharge goes through as a purchase and so earns miles and points on the underlying card.

You can withdraw £200 of cash per month at an ATM for free and it will be recharged to your underlying Visa or Mastercard as a purchase, earning miles and points (unless you have a credit card from Tesco Bank, which treats Curve ATM transactions as cash)

You pay ZERO FX fees when using your Curve Card for overseas spending (Mon-Fri, a 0.5% loading applies at weekends).  This effectively turns ANY Visa or Mastercard into a ‘no FX fees’ credit card.  There is a £500 per month ‘no FX fees’ limit on the free Curve Blue card and a £15,000 annual limit on the £50 Curve Black card.

As you can see, there is lots of interesting stuff here that can both save you money on FX fees and earn you miles and points too.

Curve is about to allow American Express cards to be linked to the card.  This will have a number of advantages:

You can pay with American Express anywhere, even at shops which don’t allow American Express, by using your Curve Mastercard linked to your Amex

You can pay with American Express at places which only accept debit cards, by using your Curve Mastercard linked to your Amex

You can spend abroad on American Express without incurring FX fees, by using your Curve Mastercard linked to your Amex (up to £500 per month on the free Curve version)

Amex payments are currently operating via a Beta programme with a small number of Curve users.

In summary:

Amex functionality is a little different.  You will have an e-wallet enabled in your Curve app.  You need to pre-load this with funds from your linked American Express card.  The T&Cs say that eventually the top-up will be automated, so that you don’t need to manually load funds – as soon as you make a £100 Curve purchase, for example, Curve will automatically top-up your e-wallet and authorise the transaction.  

Amex use is not free.  Holders of the free Blue Curve card will pay 0.65% on all American Express transactions.  Holders of the £50 Black Curve will get £1,000 of American Express payments for free each month, with a fee of 0.65% thereafter.

All UK personal American Express cards are accepted as far as I can tell.  This includes charge (Platinum), BA, SPG etc.  This is a surprise as I understood that only the co-brand cards – which have had their fees capped under EU legislation – were going to participate.

Is it worth paying 0.65% for American Express acceptance?

Oddly, there is not a straight answer here.

If you have Curve Black then, whilst you are spending your £1,000 of free Amex allowance per month, it is clearly a good deal.  Beyond that, or for all Curve Blue customers, it is a bit different.

On the face of it, you might say:

“I am paying 0.65p per £1 recharged to my free BA Amex to earn 1 Avios, and 0.65p is a bargain”, or

“I am paying 0.65p per £1 recharged to my BA Premium Plus Amex to earn 1.5 Avios, and 0.43p per Avios is a great bargain”, or

“I am paying 0.65p per £1 recharged to my SPG Amex to earn 3 Starwood / Marriott points, and 0.22p per Starwood / Marriott points is a great bargain”

However ….

There is also an opportunity cost because you could have used a Visa or Mastercard for free.  You could for example:

Link a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard to Curve, earn 1.5 Virgin miles per £1 and pay no transaction fee, or

Link a BA Premium Plus American Express to Curve, earn 1.5 Avios per £1 and pay 0.65% transaction fee

Your American Express acceptance cost is therefore 0.65% PLUS whatever rewards you would have got for free linking your highest earning Visa or Mastercard instead.

There are very few ‘super generous’ Visa or Mastercard products available however, so unless you have one of the new Virgin Atlantic cards or the IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard then paying for Amex acceptance via Curve is likely to be your best bet.

Of course, if ‘manufacturing’ American Express spend via Curve Card makes it easier to hit the 2-4-1 voucher on your British Airways American Express card, or hit the sign-up bonus on a new Amex, or hit the 10000 points annual bonus for spending £15000 on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, then the maths changes again. Using Amex via Curve is likely to be an excellent way of ensuring that you hit these targets.

Most Head for Points readers WILL get a lot of benefit from linking their American Express card to Curve.

When can I get it?

I don’t know.  The Beta programme launched last week for those who were invited.  The rest of us will have to wait a while.

It is also worth noting that Curve is planning to replace the existing Black card with two new products, each of which will carry a monthly fee but will come with a far wider range of benefits than you receive now.  I am not sure how existing Black cardholders will be migrated.

There is certainly no harm in getting yourself the free Curve Blue card now.  You can enjoy all of the benefits I outlined at the top of the page whilst waiting for Amex acceptance to roll out. Curve will pay you £10 for trying it out if you use our link.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Amex Platinum Business American Express

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, Curve Card, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (271)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Mrkhan says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:05

    Can i pay Amex bill with this?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      26 Nov26 November 06:07

      Face palm

    • Frenske says:
      26 Nov26 November 06:30

      I can’t remember the T&C but I thought for sure paying off a CC card using a curve linked to the same CC card is not allowed. There were reports that people got blocked for using curve for CC payments. I had never an issue with smaller amounts. So be careful.

    • Tony says:
      26 Nov26 November 06:40

      1st rule of fight club…

      • callum says:
        26 Nov26 November 07:14

        These comments are getting incredibly tedious. You are ridiculously naive if you think Curve are unaware some people are doing this… Who on Earth do you think you’re dealing with – a random guy in his mum’s basement? They know full well exactly what people are doing.

      • callum says:
        26 Nov26 November 07:14

        Unless your point is it’s fine for you to benefit but no-one else can be allowed to know? Equally irritating!

        • Guesswho2000 says:
          26 Nov26 November 07:33

          Yes, of course they do, but the general rule of thumb with these things is to keep below the radar.

          All the companies tolerate things to an extent, but when the masses start abusing things (look at the US bloggers and various routes well documented) that’s when it gets a bit silly and routes get closed…

        • TGLoyalty says:
          26 Nov26 November 08:05

          They do but Amex can easily block the bin.

        • Mark2 says:
          26 Nov26 November 08:12

          as can Curve!

        • the_real_a says:
          26 Nov26 November 09:07

          Amex has already blocked several of curves bin`s, as well as banning the addition of offers not on cards earlier in the year after “clogging” up customer services and causing a spike in the overflow call center.

          It is incredibly naive to believe that on a site with tens of thousands of daily impressions and a top 3 google ranking that companies do not see what is discussed here – you are effectively tweeting the company with your loophole. This is not a small niche site anymore. Not to mention “newbies” who go so far as contacting the company to confirm the loophole exists.

          As anyone who has been around this game for longer than 10 minutes knows, “gobbing off” and killing a goose just means that people are unlikely to share the next loophole. You only have to look at the dead flyertalk and reddit threads to see this in action.

        • Stuart says:
          26 Nov26 November 10:37

          What you mean is gobbing off and killing YOUR goose. I’m sure you’d be more than happy to have someone else’s goose pointed out to you on here.

          This site used to be so nice with everyone willing to help others out, but recently it’s become everyone for themselves, and if anyone dares “share the wealth” they get shot down in flames, a quiet email to Rob and the comments are removed.

          As if either Curve or AMex need to read about loopwholes on here. Their own BI would produce more than enough stats to show what is going on…

    • RTS says:
      26 Nov26 November 11:51

      Hahaha – i always do find these “fight club rules” as an absolute joke.

      To answer the question from the OP. Yes, you should be able to. You will effectively be paying 0.65% to pay off your balance each and every time.

      • Ereico1875 says:
        26 Nov26 November 18:32

        Unless Im wrong, surely the most AMEX can now charge a retailer is 0.3%, so to divvy up 0.65% with Curve is a win for both,
        So why would they care if you paid your balance with AMEX via Curve. Better than giving Tesco Bank or Halifax a percentage surely

        • Shoestring says:
          26 Nov26 November 18:45

          Wrong on several accounts. Eg Amex Amex cards can charge what they like.

      • Alan says:
        26 Nov26 November 21:57

        Not necessarily, Amex payment system is extremely picky about what cards it accepts.

  • Jon says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:06

    Definitely looking forward to these changes as I’ve maxed out my annual limit (looking back I seem to have got to around 65k but now it’s locked out).

    Amex will be a good addition just to hit the spend targets on the cards.

    Any idea on timing for the new monthly pay / higher limit cards? Thanks

    • Daniel Evans says:
      26 Nov26 November 07:48

      Get in touch with their customer service team. They were very helpful with me, and there are ways around this cap though you may have to agree to curb some of your more flagrant cash recycling activities, if that’s how you breached the limit.

  • James says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:21

    This beta will catch all of the outsized earning opportunities so they can be stopped 🙁
    The point of Curve is convenience; carrying one card but being able to choose where that spend sits across your other cards. It is not created in order to trick credit cards into providing points on types of transactions they usually wouldn’t give points for, which is of course how we want to use it !!!

    So this beta will be used to identify & remove any remaining tricks.

    🙁

    • Daniel Evans says:
      26 Nov26 November 07:46

      All the beta does is add an extra payment method. All existing “tricks” as you call them will continue to work.

      Curve is a debit card so can be used anywhere that accepts debit cards. In fact with the Amex beta because all Amex sees is the cash top-up and not the underlying transaction you are more likely to be able to use it for “tricks”. Currently if i recharge to my IHG card then IHG know exactly what the spend was on and could i guess mark some down as “cash” rather than “purchase” and add on the relevant fee.

      • Alan says:
        26 Nov26 November 07:54

        Although for clarity for those not in the beta, cash withdrawals are blocked from the Curve Amex ‘pot’.

    • Doug M says:
      26 Nov26 November 10:05

      But it’s far to unreliable to be the only card you carry. Of all the things I end up taking with me each day a couple of real credit cards are hardly significant.

  • James says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:23

    Looking forward to being able to use my AMEX in places which don’t accept AMEX of course 🙂

  • Neil Donoghue says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:29

    Like many readers mentioned last week, Curve’s customer service appears to be going backwards. Their PR is a train wreck, their response time to emails is now 5+ days and the lack of information moving forward, makes you wonder why they even mentioned this in the first place. I am also very interested to see how Black card holders will be migrated as it looks like they will be shafted despite paying £50.

    • Will says:
      26 Nov26 November 07:09

      Exactly. There should be something in it for those that have already paid out for black.

      • Bagoly says:
        26 Nov26 November 07:14

        12 months * £1,000 * 0.65% is £78.
        Which is greater than £50.
        I agree that that is not hugely generous, but it’s not nothing either.

        • Axel says:
          26 Nov26 November 07:47

          Only on the assumption a UK black card curve holder spends 12 months of the year abroad.

        • Shoestring says:
          26 Nov26 November 08:07

          @Axel – £1000/ month is the ‘free’ monthly Amex load allowed for Black cardholders before the 0.65% becomes payable. Blueys don’t get this. Plus Blackeys get a better loyalty scheme.

          @Will – you’d only expect the initial £50 to give an advantage over Blue for 1 year, same as (say) your BAPP £195 fee is payable annually. So there’ll be an annual fee to pay for Blackeys, you’d be living in could cuckoo land if you expected anything else given the advantages over Blue. And if the annual fee goes over about £75, then you have to question whether it can possibly be worth paying it. Not as if it confers any other real benefits besides the free £1000/ month Amex load allowance.

      • Rob says:
        26 Nov26 November 08:39

        And there will be, I think.

        • Thomas Howard says:
          26 Nov26 November 10:35

          but will the benefits be worth anything? Another card with the same benefits as all the other cards I already pay for doesn’t add any value.

          • Rob says:
            26 Nov26 November 11:05

            That would clearly depend on what other cards you have 🙂 If you’ve got Amex Plat it won’t add anything, if you don’t it might.

        • George says:
          26 Nov26 November 13:34

          In the event that the rumoured travel insurance appears – how do those who already have it through Plat get around the double insurance issue? Revolut Premium/Black for instance has insurance, as do various packaged accounts – I’ve always been reticent to take these things up in case it dilutes my cover from someone I trust (Amex) with someone I don’t (Revolut)

  • James says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:31

    What are the downsides to this ?
    Curve is a debit card now so presumably you won’t get standard credit card protections ?

    Also I presume the underlying credit card (such as Amex or Creation) won’t chase up any problems for you with the real merchant, only Curve. Does Curve has a huge support team and any responsibility to chase up problems with a merchant on your behalf ?

    Just looking for downsides I need to be aware of so I don’t get any nasty surprises.

    • Max says:
      26 Nov26 November 06:33

      No protection at all – unless you use PayPal and then there is their protection.

      • DaveL says:
        26 Nov26 November 08:02

        I thought MasterCard chargeback was applicable?

        • Shoestring says:
          26 Nov26 November 08:09

          Curve runs a chargeback scheme, yes. Same as Amex charge cards do. And indeed, same as Visa/ MC do for items under £100.

    • Simon says:
      26 Nov26 November 08:10

      1. Incoming annual fee 2. absolutely no purchase.

      • Simon says:
        26 Nov26 November 08:18

        Let’s try that again! 1. Incoming monthly fee 2. Absolutely no purchase protection

        • TGLoyalty says:
          26 Nov26 November 08:27

          Curve transactions have never provided s75 protection but you do have access to the MasterCard chargeback scheme.

          Also Amex charge cards don’t either by law but Amex offer an equivalent anyway.

          • Rob says:
            26 Nov26 November 08:34

            My Curve was cloned over the Summer in Germany, no problem getting the fraudulent transactions refunded.

  • Max says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:32

    This is NOT good news…..

    They have already backtracked on their plans. Clearly Rob was misled otherwise he would not have encouraged people to upgrade to Black!

    As mentioned Black card holders will be the ones losing out in the near future……

    • Simon says:
      26 Nov26 November 07:56

      Not worth the hype or wait. This also shows Curve, as suspected, haven’t got a clue what they’re doing.

      • Shoestring says:
        26 Nov26 November 08:24

        It’s clearly very much worth it for *some* people. I’m thinking: somebody with big HMRC payments who can put BAPP 2-4-1s to good use. Depends how you use them, of course, but a good 2-4-1 LH redemption can easily be worth £2K.

        • tartan says:
          26 Nov26 November 08:31

          I was counting on Amex curve support for paying HMRC at the end of Jan. Hopefully the public beta will be open by then. Should push me nicely over the line for my 2-4-1

        • Thomas Howard says:
          26 Nov26 November 10:54

          It depends whether you think the 0.65% is worth it for a HMRC payment, the £1000 a month allowance wouldn’t cover my tax bill and I think comparatively low paid on the HfP set.

        • Michal says:
          26 Nov26 November 16:57

          You could apply for 2nd wave of Amex closed Beta program here:

          https://imaginecurve.typeform.com/to/VurRva

    • Rob says:
      26 Nov26 November 08:43

      I think it will work out ok – but clearly if you expect to get a big pile of valuable (and expensive for Curve) perks for life for free when others are paying £x.99 per month then it won’t be happening. I anticipate a generous transition period (eg a free year) or the ringfencing of existing Blacks without the new benefits.

      • PJ says:
        26 Nov26 November 09:36

        Agree – I’ve argued for the offer of grandfathering Black to those who want it.

        • Simon says:
          26 Nov26 November 15:06

          @PJ I suggested that Black card holders should be grandfathered in a few months back. Rob replied in a less than positive way – seemed to feel I was taking the pee. So I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Then again, once they see the lukewarm responses to their plans, they may change things…

          • Alan says:
            26 Nov26 November 21:59

            Indeed plenty of us gave feedback a few months ago about their plans, will see what they ultimately decide. A metal card and extra insurance has very little appeal for me I must say.

    • Simon says:
      26 Nov26 November 15:10

      @Shoestring Once you factor in the fees (monthly Curve fee and transaction fee) it may be justifiable to use on large purchases. I’m personally not convinced. Then again, I don’t seem to be the customer base Curve want.

      They seem to be after Millennials and Gen Zers. A demographic that tends not to have premium bank accounts or Amex Plat/Centurion.

      Curve’s new product and direction looks an awful lot like Amex’s ‘Millennial Card’ Cobalt Card, right up to the monthly, rather than annual fee. Millennials prefer paying monthly for their products. They are also big fans of shiny metal cards, which Curve will launch with the new product.

  • Bagoly says:
    26 Nov26 November 06:40

    Has anybody tried linking the (Mastercard) M&M to Curve?
    As that is prepaid instantaneously-in-advance from the Diners, does that make the chain get too long for the systems to cope in real time?

    (Motivation is to get M&Ms for foreign spend without paying the 3% fee)

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