Wild if true, thought aggregating your cards across everything is the point of Curve. Somewhat surprised they aren’t processing UnionPay either
I think that’s only for the first card. I’ve put an American card on it without any issues.
You can’t add UnionPay or Amex. Not sure about JCB.
They sent communication out few months back and they said cards that were already added will not be affected plus their replacements but going forward new ones will not be added.
1 Like
Their help is rather misleading on this. The first card must be EEA/UK but it says in one place that you can’t add non EEA cards but in another that you can What cards can I add to my Curve wallet? and elsewhere what the charges are What is an international payment card and what fees are associated with them? .
I added a US card in March but then I’m not a new customer so whatever way you read it, I’d have been OK.
Also it specifically says Visa cards so presumably foreign MasterCards are OK.
Also presumably foreign Discover and Diners cards are also OK as these aren’t issued in EEA/UK.
JCB has a cross-country acceptance agreement with another network, but I’d need to check which one
It’s Amex - which is no good for Curve!
I’m guessing UnionPay/AmEx/Discover have similar agreements on acceptance with each other that fucks over Curve too? I’ll look into it later if no one else can shed light onto it
JCB and Amex have a cross-acceptance agreement whereby JCB cardholders can have their cards processed through the Amex network at Amex-accepting merchants as though they were normal Amex cards; JCB do the same in reverse in Japan for Amex cardholders at JCB-accepting merchants.
Most of these cross-acceptance agreements work the same way.
Discover and Diners Club are effectively the same thing as Discover own Diners Club and process those cards through their own Discover network. Outside North America, no Discover cards are issued but there are/were some (rare) Diners Club International cards.
UnionPay is, again, it’s own card network. They have some agreements with card processing firms to encourage acceptance of their cards. Barclaycard is one such example, so all Barclaycard terminals process UnionPay cards and all Barclaycard merchants are supposed to accept them. Apparently UnionPay also have cross-acceptance agreements with JCB and Discover.
It’s worth remembering that Curve’s “partner”, really, is Mastercard - all of Curve’s own cards are issued on the Mastercard network. Other card networks may not want to play nice with Curve as they may not like the way Curve works. Mastercard, at least, seem OK with it but that’s no guarantee everyone else will be.
Not a card reciprocal agreement but it’s worth mentioning in China there’s also an agreement by WeChat Pay/Alipay (微信付宝/支付宝) to accept foreign visa/mastercards (a deal which was expanded recently too) (as many places in China don’t accept cards)
1 Like
Curve free is to charge a 2.5% FX charge from November. The subscription tiers have also had a price hike and benefit cut (max on fronted).
https://cdn.buttercms.com/fqe5hp7Tua08toluGYrw
The usefulness of this product diminishes yet more.
2 Likes
Ooft - I was planning on using Curve to pay foreign subscriptions.
Presumably you will still be able to manually switch card currency and allow the underlying card to do the conversion, if that bank allows FX fee-free transactions.
Unless they further restrict that, of course.
In this case the underlying currency isn’t supported (hryvnia) - I’ve got to decide whether to rock the boat and change the card!
It’s that or use Plutus as the funding source so the 2.5% is offset at least to some degree…(although they are nuking their membership levels soon too)
1 Like
I will be leaving when time for renewal reaches.
Oh I see, I hadn’t realised that.
I have thought about using Plutus to get Curve Black with cashback and unlock the ability to have plenty of cards in Curve again - but so far I’ve simply stopped using Curve and stuck with their free plan with my account dormant. It’s a shame I didn’t just take out Curve Black originally as Curve offered a refund of the original fees after the Amex saga and, if I had done, I’d now be on Curve Black legacy which I’d be happy with.
Is Plutus cashback easy to convert back to GBP and withdraw or do you end up with it stuck in Crypto?
Still worth it for me. The cashback has consistently more than paid the £150 and usually more like £180.
There’s also the ‘free’ travel insurance which saves £100 or more. Unusually this year, it being World Elite saved me getting on for £1000 on a hire car.
That said, I will be looking around and I think its days are numbered unless there’s a corresponding jump in benefits.
I haven’t received an email from Curve and cannot see anything about these new terms on Curve.com
How were you notified of the new subscription terms?
It does seem at this point that you either go for Curve Metal and use the product extensively, which makes the cost worth it, or don’t bother at all.