Using Curve abroad: non-sterling transaction

General Chat Travelling
#1

Good morning.

I was wondering if you can clarify few things for me, and sorry if this post is already somewhere, but I was not able to find a final recent answer to my questions.

While traveling abroad ( out of UK) which type of fees I encounter if I do my transaction in local currency (let s say Euro) if my card

  1. Does charge for non-sterling transaction (let s assume high street banks)
  2. Does not charge for non-sterling transaction ( as Monzo, Starling)

Is the card doing the change with a more convenient rate or will pass it straight through without conversion?
In case is doing a better conversion, is there a limit? ( always talking about payment , not ATM).

Thank you,
Gennaro

#2

Hi and welcome to the community. Please read the topic below (it’s and oldie, but still up to date) and see if you still have questions after reading it.

And an article on spending abroad and fees from the Curve support pages.

#3

Hello and thank you for your prompt reply.

So if I understand correctly

  1. if I pay in local currency I let Curve do the conversion , and is counted on my monthly allowance
  2. if I pay in pounds, it won’t be taken from my montly allowance.

The point is that one of the dogma is always to pay in local currency and let the “card” do the conversion for a more convenient rate.

The major thing is that I can keep using my challenging bank ( Monzo, Starling or whatever), but the advantage of Curve is to bring just one card. So I was trying to figure out more conveniente set up.

#4

Assuming your underlying cards are in GBP and you are paying in EUR, this would mean for

  1. Set your underlying card in the Curve app to GBP, Curve will do the conversion. This will count towards your monthly allowance.
  2. Set your underlying card in the Curve app to EUR, your underlying card will do the conversion. This will not count towards your monthly allowance.
#5

thank you.

So if my card

has no limits in transaction, once abroad, is better to set it up in EUR
instead if it has limits, i can set up in EUR until I reach that limit, and then switch to GBP to use the monthly allowance.

After that I think is time to go back to UK. :grinning:

what happens if I am in UK and I forgot to swtich back my card to GBP? even if on UK soil (:)) will be taken from my montly allowance?
Just in case I forget to set it up.

#6

Correct

Correct

#7

Thank you so much!!!

is the conversion rate of Curve as good as the other challenging bank?

#8

Except for the weekends it’s probably most of the time even better.

It’s Wholesale/Interbank rate vs (for most of the other challenger banks) MasterCard rate.

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