Interestingly that’s the percentage cut they, and others (there’s a new post here mentioning HSBC proposing the same fee), take for a foreign exchange ATM transaction.
Seems like they want to take the same cut for doing no extra work at all, either abroad or now at home.
Well, maybe this is going to be the thing that finally has me move my money elsewhere.
No news on my request to close my account and refund the fees. To be honest I don’t expect a reply.
I’ve got screenshots of my increasingly fraught conversations, largely one way, with Curve so the ground is prepared for a chargeback as they are obviously not providing the service I’ve paid for.
At least NatWest, HSBC, Virgin haven’t gone the way Amex did and just block curve but it looks like curve is coming to a end but you can get new metal card colour
Support disappeared
I’m pretty sure that, on past form, Curve will work without any additional charges for normal retail purchases. The issues occur with Curve Fronted, which seems to ceasing to exist at least for MasterCard-routed debits, and also for cash withdrawals.
Needless to say that for Curve Metal users this leaves a big hole in the service being paid for made worse because Curve still refuses to say what is going on and people are receiving charges. This doesn’t seem to be something Curve feel they need to comment on which is disgraceful.
Normal transactions have been fine, it’s just fronted.
Curve really just need to change the MCC codes they send through then this won’t happen. But fronted is a big part of my metal subscription use, without being able to use it is irrelevant for me to keep my subscription.
Reached out to support so let’s see how long it takes for a response.
Check carefully that these card issuers’ T&Cs do allow them to treat fronted transactions as cash, e.g. paying off another credit card or adding money to an ISA, pension or NS&I. Note that money purchase, whose MCC Curve blocks, is a different MCC from these popular types of Curve fronted transactions.
Remember that these card issuers cannot interpret their T&Cs in their favour. There is a well-established legal doctrine called contra proferentem, which causes any ambiguity in a contact to be interpreted against the author. Although the principle is well established in case law in many jurisdictions, it is often codified into statute, including in the United Kingdom by Section 69 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which states:
If a term in a consumer contract, or a consumer notice, could have different meanings, the meaning that is most favourable to the consumer is to prevail.
I did two €100 euro withdrawals one through curve with Virgin money card selected and other one direct from Virgin money card and both worked out same interest rate same debit from my card from Virgin money so no extra fee for using curve
What kind of NatWest card/account is this with? I’m using a Rewards Current and Rewards Credit Card with Curve and not getting charged. Even for fronted transactions (I pay my council tax Curve->Rewards Credit Card and collect the 0.25% cashback on it)