Curve Card - Still in Beta...accepting applications via invite

[Alephbet]

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@NoMoreE46 wrote:

Thanks for your reply @Alephbet.

Hopefully your SP sticks. 

And yea, I have been seeing Approvals but thru HP.

I won't be apping now.

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I can certainly understand why you would not apply. So far, except for once at a pizza place, my Curve card has worked with my Chase Aeroplan card for groceries at various different grocery stores. Most of these have been through Apple Pay without issue (once I updated Apple Pay to the final Curve card number on my physical card). Not being able to use Visa cards is a big downside and one that I hope gets fixed. I would also like the option to just not have "Curve Credit" at all and I asked customer service if this was possible. They did not answer that question at all so far. Those of us that are interested enough in credit card rewards to be interested in the Curve card to begin with will likely certainly have a backup card if the Curve card is declined and do not really need the "anti-embarrassment" feature of "Curve Credit," particularly at just $500.

[yoda42]

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@ptatohed wrote:

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@yoda42 wrote:

Tried first transaction via Google Pay at a Dunkin Donuts to charge on Discover for the 5% restaurants category -  and it denied it. Ended up using Discover directly.   Not a good start.

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Sorry if I missed this.  Why Google Pay?  Is the Curve card not a physical card?  

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I used the digital number until card arrived.  Got the physical hard yesterday and used it for groceries at one indian and one korean store and had no issues.  Charged to custom cash correctly (for the 5% groceries category).   The curve  defined categories are limited at best  - so even if Visa cards are added, it will be hard to deal with all my categories.  Also since Curve doesn't allow drugstores/pharmacy (really odd - maybe they carried over something related to UK to the US).  Also they list insurance as well along with other financial products, including government taxes (ie property taxes).  Again a bit odd on insurance and property taxes as well as drugstore/pharmacy. 

Some categories are allowed, but don't earn the 1% bonus..  

At least it is working for groceries. 

[Alephbet]

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@yoda42 wrote:

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@ptatohed wrote:

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@yoda42 wrote:

Tried first transaction via Google Pay at a Dunkin Donuts to charge on Discover for the 5% restaurants category -  and it denied it. Ended up using Discover directly.   Not a good start.

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Sorry if I missed this.  Why Google Pay?  Is the Curve card not a physical card?  

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I used the digital number until card arrived.  Got the physical hard yesterday and used it for groceries at one indian and one korean store and had no issues.  Charged to custom cash correctly (for the 5% groceries category).   The curve  defined categories are limited at best  - so even if Visa cards are added, it will be hard to deal with all my categories.  Also since Curve doesn't allow drugstores/pharmacy (really odd - maybe they carried over something related to UK to the US).  Also they list insurance as well along with other financial products, including government taxes (ie property taxes).  Again a bit odd on insurance and property taxes as well as drugstore/pharmacy. 

Some categories are allowed, but don't earn the 1% bonus..  

At least it is working for groceries. 

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Agreed. All I have used it for is groceries and eating out as they call it. They said gas will be a category in the future. I was hoping to reduce the number of cards in my wallet but it hasn't really worked out that way so far. I have just substituted the Curve card for my Chase Aeroplan and that's it. Gas would at least be helpful for the Chase Freedom Flex use this quarter. Although I have not tried it yet, I presume one could set the category rules to "everything else" on the Freedom Flex which would include gas. 

[UncleB]

I'm hoping there's a misunderstanding about the card not working at drugstores/pharmacies.  If that's the case, this product is going to wither and die on the vine before it even gets started.

I understand the business reason for disallowing merchants such as Raise, tax payments, etc. but not allowing run-of-the-mill retail purchases like drugstores is nuts.  If I have to consult a cheatsheet to see if the card will work at the store I'm currently at I just won't bother.

[unsungivy]

Countries outside of the US that Curve worked in: Denmark, Germany

Countries outside of the US that Curve did NOT work in: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, England (**bleep**?)

We contacted Curve after it didn't work in Poland (it was simply declined, without going to the attached card or using the anti-embarrassment function, and we did a test purchase in Google app store to see it it worked there after being declined, and it was just fine). They looked into it and said that it was not yet working for Poland, but that after asking coworkers, it should work for the other countries we listed following that (it didn't work for any of them, but we kept trying).

Guess we got lucky with Denmark and Germany... not working in England, Sweden, and Finland confuses me though. You'd think they'd be significant enough to work.

I will give feedback on how the go-back-in-time pans out, as we paid for some museums in Denmark with it, and it routed them to the Savor card as "entertainment" unfortunately, Savor has yet to consider museums entertaining in my experience, so I will move it to a different card and see if the coding transfers.

[BijouMan]

The Curve Card is a card popular in Europe that can be linked to many credit and debit cards. It acts as a Debit Mastercard that, when charged, passes the charge to the card selected. It works fine in Europe because they don't typically have bonus categories on cards. However, it simply cannot work for us Americans because now every transaction will have the same Merchant Category Code as all transactions will be from Curve, not from the merchants themselves, meaning you will no longer get your bonus categories. Besides, smartphones and smartwatches can already hold many credit and debit cards for contactless use, using a different account number making it secure, so there is no point in having this system.

[Alephbet]

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@BijouMan wrote:

The Curve Card is a card popular in Europe that can be linked to many credit and debit cards. It acts as a Debit Mastercard that, when charged, passes the charge to the card selected. It works fine in Europe because they don't typically have bonus categories on cards. However, it simply cannot work for us Americans because now every transaction will have the same Merchant Category Code as all transactions will be from Curve, not from the merchants themselves, meaning you will no longer get your bonus categories. Besides, smartphones and smartwatches can already hold many credit and debit cards for contactless use, using a different account number making it secure, so there is no point in having this system.

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I was concerned about this but the category has been passed through for me so far. All of my grocery store and dining purchases have flowed through to my Chase Aeroplan card and have shown up appropriately to get the 3X bonus. The Curve Card here in the US is not a debit card but a credit card. It seems as though Curve is taking a different approach in the US which does make sense.

[unsungivy]

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@unsungivy wrote:

I will give feedback on how the go-back-in-time pans out, as we paid for some museums in Denmark with it, and it routed them to the Savor card as "entertainment" unfortunately, Savor has yet to consider museums entertaining in my experience, so I will move it to a different card and see if the coding transfers.

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Well, the museums counted for Savor for once as 4%, despite being listed as "Other - Misc" by Cap1, so leaving them alone.

However, there was a taxi charge that posted to Savor after BofA declined the charge (presumably because Savor was set as "General" or because it was set as the default card... one of those made it the backup method of payment instead of "Curve Credit", which is interesting).

So, perfect chance to use the Go Back in Time feature. Which worked perfectly. Coded correctly as Taxis/Limos on the BofA and counted for Travel. Had a fun little "back to the future" style animation when switched as well, and the charge is now marked with it showing that it was switched and cannot be switched again.

[unsungivy]

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@BijouMan wrote:

However, it simply cannot work for us Americans because now every transaction will have the same Merchant Category Code as all transactions will be from Curve, not from the merchants themselves, meaning you will no longer get your bonus categories. Besides, smartphones and smartwatches can already hold many credit and debit cards for contactless use, using a different account number making it secure, so there is no point in having this system.

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Wrongity wrong wrong wrong 😁

Aside from all the wrongness, its an important feature that you get a physical card, since there are plenty of times where a merchant doesn't have contactless.

And, I can already tell you what a big fan P2 is of it. They are bragging about it to everyone.

I really want to know why, if the EU version of the card works all over Europe, the US version was rejected in so many countries, however. I just don't get that part, since they already had working relationships there.

[mumbogray]

Just tried to apply, 

So Sorry! Based on the information you provided, you are not eligible for a Curve account right now. And, for security reasons, we can't provide you with more info about this.

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I dont think they dinged my CR, but it was after i put in my SSN and clicked a confirm. I wasn't paying close attention.  Never got to enter annual income at any point.