It looks like my time as a customer is coming to an end

General Chat
#1

I thought I’d share with where I am. I’m facing a £150 renewal fee for Curve Metal in January, or losing the last remaining good feature… one card number for them all.

Here’s my first email to customer service:

I’ll be blunt and get straight to the point…

I’m getting fed up with bugs and glitches. I’m tired of seeing you launch new, half-baked, features without concentrating on your core product.

So, I tried to downgrade my account today… Only to (surprise, surprise) hit yet another bug! FFS :rage::man_facepalming: (Video was attached to the email)

Can I downgrade to the free version at the end of this subscription period in January? Please?

I received a reply to tell me the downgrade bug was fixed, and if I cancel the subscription, I lose the only remaining good feature… one card number to use for them all, as they’ll need to reissue a new card.

Sorry George. But you haven’t fixed it. Video attached.
And that’s kinda the point. So much posturing, bluster, and sales patter… But core functionality is still broken.

Also attached is a screenshot of an issue that’s been reported over years now… When a partial refund is processed, it shows the whole transaction as the value of the refund. The transaction in question is ***************. The UI should show £34.15, which it does in the daily total, but instead shows +£2.49 which is just incorrect.

And these are just the really annoying bugs. Your app is littered with them, and no one seems to care… instead launching useless features like a “rounded balance of a bank account”. Who even asked for that?!

On top of that, your metal card comes with travel insurance that can’t really be used at the moment “discounted” airport lounge access which is just a £5 discount really, and can’t really be used, and mobile phone insurance that doesn’t cover a lot of the most popular phones in the UK because the limit is set to £800.

So… please, with all the bugs which you don’t seem capable of fixing, with insurance I can’t use, with a tiny discount on lounge access, cheap phone insurance, and a metal card that’s barely left the house in 9 months (and isn’t useful for online shopping because it has no details on it)… justify £150 a year to me.

Because what you’re saying to me is, give us £150 on the 21st January, or we remove the last redeeming feature of Curve and change the “one number” I use everywhere.

That’s a really disappointing stance to take.

How’s everyone else faring? Anyone else as tired as I am?

5 Likes
#2

Yes, totally agree.

Only using Curve as a contactless front to put small transactions on my reward credit card. I believe they make a loss on each transaction here, since I switched to a personal card. Before I switched (due to the stupid Curve Fronted move), they actually made money on each of my transactions on my Curve commercial card.

Their blindness/unwillingness to own up to all the horrors you mention (and more) is the worst bit of it. I was particularly amused that this recent post:

Which was made while Curve are scrabbling around fixing Amazon £10 cashback payments. Surely giving people £10 for just using their card is the fintech equivalent of arranging a ‘heavy drinking session’ in a brewery? Total mess right from the launch - mixed/delayed messages, dates wrong, tracking failures, non-GBP customers seem to be particularly affected (as always)… All things people saw coming and Curve just sat and watched happen in slow motion.

Then there’s the £2k they’ve collected for charity (feeding hungry people) which they continue to not actually give to the charity, even as food poverty in the UK reaches the point where UNICEF have to pitch in.

I suspect the only way Curve makes it through 2021 is stripped for parts and sold to Samsung so they can operate Samsung Pay themselves.

4 Likes
#3

I have the free version, but I have been facing various bugs with refunds… they put the refund on transactions that have nothing to do with it, and this have caused a pending refund that was already credited (it shows up on my PayPal account) but still didn’t go through Curve card because of being “blocked” by having been made a refund from a different transaction on top of that transaction. so, kinda confusing when written, but basically Curve believes that transaction was already refunded when the real thing was that another different refund was made using that transaction…

they have been making some new features, so, a long shot but, I would really like the next new feature to be an improved customer support (direct chat support anyone?)

3 Likes
#4

I agree with the points raised here. Combination of poor levels of Customer Support that basically show contempt for clients plus initiatives launched whilst still rough round the edges.

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#5

Have you contacted support ?

#6

sure, waiting for an update from them.

#7

Pretty ridiculous rant. If you are going to complain, use adequate language and perhaps leave the current pandemic out of it. A lounge you cannot use due to the current circumstances is not Curve’s fault neither the fact you had no use for the card in the past 9 months.

Why anyone would sign up for the Metal offering in the first place is beyond me but don’t complain about features that have been communicated to you before sign-up.

4 Likes
#8

I left Curve just before lockdown ended in the UK

The monthly subscription is not worth it compared to the benefits you get in return.

I’m also credit card free now. So the only card I have is my Monzo card. Which I pay £15 for Monzo premium which lets me use virtual cards while shopping snd I have full comp insurance on my iPhone at the same price it would of been if I took insurance with my mobile network.

I’m actually getting much more than I pay for with Monzo Premium

2 Likes
#9

I was a keen Curve user and became an investor too so it’s in my interest for them to do well. The top level idea has to be to make things simpler not harder. Refunds has always been a complete mess and recently on my wife’s card they did a £30 charge for a refund they incorrectly credited 3 months ago.

After trying almost every bank account I have settled on Monzo as the interface is really good and you get paid from your employer 1 working day early.

Curve has to make things simpler and not make things way more complicated that just using your normal cards.

3 Likes
#10

Did they not release a new update where all refunds are allocated to Curve Cash and then you can refund them to any card of choice?

I remember them talking about this along with discussing the release of Curve Credit before I cancelled and left

The interface with Monzo is amazing, I agree. It doesn’t feel like a traditional bank. I just want dark mode with Monzo :joy:

1 Like
#11

They did a full 180 on that:

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#12

So… urm… I definitely missed that :joy:

Edit: @poeliev thanks for bringing that up, I never knew it was pulled back

1 Like
#13

My issues isn’t with me being unable to use services because of Covid-19. It’s simply; in the climate of not being able to use the services, it seems odd of Curve to not either give a discount on renewal, or, at the very least allow a user to downgrade and keep their card number.

What they’re now doing is holding my card number hostage for £150. I don’t want all the services that come with Metal any more… but… to change my card number, which is saved in so many places, means I may as well just start replacing that number with an underlying card.

Changing the card number, when the sole purpose of Curve is to have one card number for all your cards, seems like a huge slap in the face for investors, and those who have paid for Metal in the past - arguably doing more to help keep them going that other customers.

#14

I recently downgraded from metal due to not being able to use the vast majority of features and having alternative insurance elsewhere. It didn’t make sense for me anymore to pay a £14.99 a month fee for something I wasn’t benefiting from.

Admittedly having to update card numbers everywhere is a nightmare, I’ve switched 95% of my regular transactions to PayPal to make it easier to update card details.

1 Like
#15

Did they automatically cancel your metal card? I would have thought they’d let you use it, albeit without the additional benefits.

#16

Cancelled straight away, refunded the difference in monthly fee which was nice. Sent me our a new one, but the metal card carried on working till I activated my new one.

2 Likes
#17

Talk about the pinnacle of first world problems. How do you cope when your bank cards expire?

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#18

What a ridiculous thing to say! Of course I should pay £150 a year for poor service, because to complain about it would be “the pinnacle of first world problems” :rofl:

If you’re so concerned with non first world problems, why are you even a customer of Curve :rofl:

1 Like
#19

My little jab was in reference to you complaining about how they holding your card number “hostage”, even though card numbers change all the time.

2 Likes
#20

But one of the points of having a Curve card is that they shouldn’t change all the time. One card to use them all… and you should only have to change if it expires or has been compromised… not because Curve decide to take it off you. They should be able to cancel the insurance policies and allow me to keep the card number. To force a user to change everywhere where their card is stored any time they change price plan, is holding the number hostage - making it unnecessarily difficult to change price plan