Curve Card Review: Combine All Your Cards into One Card & App

The Curve App aims to simplify the financial life of its users. It connects all your accounts with a single app and a single smart card. The application also gives you instant updates related to your spending habits. Curve promotes the fact that you only need to pack a single card when you go places and will not have to deal with any hidden currency fees when traveling.

The main goal of Curve is letting users connect their finances, so they can easily view the bigger picture. Curve aims to give users financial confidence as well as control by letting them easily spend, save, see, and send money. This is achieved by easily saving more on a daily basis, tracking where your money goes, sending money to others, spending from several accounts, and more.

Visit Curve App

How Does It Help to Access All Your Accounts via Curve?

The benefits of accessing multiple accounts via a single application or card with Curve is not immediately apparent, particularly since some people like to keep transactions separate. However, Curve is highly convenient for those who have more than one or two accounts and have trouble keeping track of everything. Instead of having to check multiple bank accounts and credit card statements to look at your spending, you can view everything on your spend timeline.

How Does Curve Help You Stay Organized?

In addition to combining the information from all your accounts into a single application, Curve also organizes the information. It instantly categorizes each transaction, so you can get up-to-date details on your expenditures within a specific category over a given range of time. Use that information to discover your total costs on any given category, from food to evenings out.

To take this to the next level, Curve partners with Xero to ensure organized bookkeeping with ease. All of your designated business expenses get instantly categorized and then synced with Xero, as do your digitized receipts. This way, you do not need to handle download multiple applications, keep boxes of receipts, or use annoying top-up cards.

What Are Curve Insights?

One of the key features of Curve that helps you stay in control of your finances is Curve Insights. The above organizational features are part of it, letting you label your expenses, divide transactions into categories, and showing insights on month-to-month expenditures. To access all this information, you can go to the Insights tab, which is a newer addition to the application. From there, you will see the concise yet detailed information regarding monthly spending behavior, already divided between business and personal expenses, the top cards used, and other categories.

This begins with a detailed overview of the month, so you can check if you hit your goals for budgeting and can compare spending behavior between months. The top part of the page shows your top categories for personal spending, followed by the top categories for business spending, and finally, the card you use for the most transactions. If you tap on any section, you can look at information in closer detail, including specific insights.

The Insights tab also lets you use filters and add additional details. Filters are particularly helpful for tracking expenditures during a particular date range. Or use the filters to look at specific categories so you can see how much you spend on essentials versus luxury items. In terms of details, you can add photos (such as of the receipt) or a note to yourself. Curve will automatically divide your expenditures into 12 different categories, including entertainment, transport, travel, business services, food and drink, shopping, health, and groceries.

How Does Curve Let You “Go Back in Time?”

One of the cool features of Curve is what the application calls the ability to “go back in time.” This feature is actually incredibly useful for those who have multiple cards and occasionally use a different one than they intended. Curve lets you go back to a previous transaction and switch which account it comes out of.

This is an incredibly useful feature for budgeting, bookkeeping, and business expenses. This way, if you accidentally use your personal credit card for a business expense, you can change it. Or if you like to use a certain card for all transactions of a certain type or forgot, you can go back and correct that.

To use this feature, simply tap on the purchase in question then choose the card that you want to move it to. You will see a message in the application when the payment is successfully changed.

What Are Curve Fees for International Spending?

The average bank will charge you as much as 5 percent in fees on top of the market currency exchange.

Curve now offers 0% fees for purchases abroad and there are no hidden extra fees, so you know exactly what you pay and will save money when compared to international transactions with other financial institutions and product.

Additionally,  for international purchases, you can immediately view how much you spent in your account’s currency, helping you budget effectively during your travels. This happens automatically if you have your notifications on, which you can adjust via the “Wallet” on Curve, specifically in “Settings.” Any ATM withdrawals in other currencies during your time abroad accrue a £2 flat fee.

If you prefer not to use Curve’s conversion rate for some reason, you can also go this route and use the card of your choice. In this case, select via the Curve application that you want to pay in the local currency by selecting the “(i)” next to your card, then switching currencies. At this point, you will pay that card’s conversion rate. Just remember to switch the currency back to your home currency when you get home.

What Is Curve Cashback?

When you sign up for Curve, you get to take advantage of a Curve Cashback Offer. This is offered for all new customers and includes three months where you receive 1 percent cashback at brands of your choice. Those with the regular Curve card can choose three major brands, while Curve Black cardholders select six. To choose where you will get your cashback, open Curve and tap on “connect,” so you can go into the Retailer Selection. From there, choose the retailers you want to earn cashback at with dozens of options for all cardholders and a few just for Curve Black holders. Just remember to carefully consider which retailers you select since you cannot change them after the initial selection.

When you want to spend your Curve Cashback Rewards, go to your wallet within the application. From there, select to pay with the Curve Rewards card. Provided you have enough reward points, the purchase will take place.

Curve does not have a relationship with any of the retailers within the Cashback Rewards program. The team carefully chose the retailers to include and plans to expand the number within the UK before expanding the list of retailers abroad. This program is eligible for those who signed up after Feb. 16, 2018.

What Other Rewards Does Curve Offer?

Those who signed up for Curve before Feb. 16, 2018, get the Curve Rewards program instead of the three-month Curve Cashback program. This program entitles all Curve Card holders to cashback of between 1 and 5 percent at participating retailers. The free Curve card earns 1 to 3 percent cashback, while the Curve Black earns 3 to 5 percent cashback. At the time of writing, there were 47 retailers to choose from, spanning all categories from pharmacies to clothing to cafes to restaurants and more. Those in this program instantly earn cashback points that they can then spend anywhere, except at ATMs.

There are also bonuses for referring others and for joining with a referral code. If you sign up using a referral code, you will get £5.

What Is Curve for Accountants and Businesses?

Curve also offers a specific version of their account for bookkeepers and accountants. Accountants can encourage their clients to use Curve to keep track of business expenses with ease, including storage of receipts. This is where the previously mentioned connection between Curve and Xero comes in handy, automatically sending information like transactions, VAT, and digitized receipts from Curve to Xero. That partnership lets you seamlessly view the relevant information in your Xero account. This version of Curve has the same general features, including handling everything from a single card, fraud protection, categorized expenses, the low international exchange rate, and the ability to “time travel” and change cards.

Curve also specifically helps business owners, particularly those of small businesses and self-starters, via the same features.

How Much Does Curve Cost?

Getting a standard Curve Mastercard is completely free and does not include any subscription fees. The premium Curve Mastercard has a one-time fee of £50 but then lets you earn double points for Curve Rewards. This account also gives you a limited-edition Curve TUMI wallet valued at £60.

Are There Limits for Using Curve?

New users have a curve limit of spending £2,000 per day, £5,000 per month (as a rolling 30 days), £200 cash withdrawals per day, and £10,000 annually (a rolling 365 days). The limits increase when you pass account risk checks and build a spending history. You can view your limits at any time in the application. It is possible to withdraw as much as £200 from credit cards each calendar month. Any amount over this carries a 2 percent fee.

How Do You Get Curve?

Curve is currently available in the UK, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Italy, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Austria. Later in 2018, Curve will begin shipping cards to Spain, Romania, Portugal, Greece, and France, as well. Ordering a Curve Mastercard is simple, as you just download the application, sign up, and follow the instructions.

Keep in mind that because of the high demand for Curve, there is a waitlist. The positions on the waitlist depend on points. Those who are new get 3 points for signing up. Those who joined prior to November 2017 get 4 points after downloading the latest application and signing in. You get an additional 10 points for each friend that you refer who signs up.

How Does Curve Protect Against Fraud?

Curve sends you an instant alert each time that you use the card, so you will know immediately if there are any fraudulent charges. If you find these alerts annoying, you can turn them off at any time in the “Settings” section of the “Wallet” tab on the application. In the case of fraud or a lost or stolen card, you can instantly lock the Curve card via the application. Additionally, Curve never shares your bank card details, including neither online nor offline.

What Other Security Features Does Curve Utilize?

Curve makes security a priority given the sensitive information in the application. The application uses cutting-edge technology to securely store and fully encrypt all of your personal information. This includes end-to-end encryption as well as security measures that follow the standard for the financial services industry. On top of this, Curve adds another layer of security by never storing any personal data concerning cards or accounts within the application. Additionally, Curve never shares data regarding your cards with neither merchants nor ATMs. You cannot even see your bank or card details when you log into the application to add yet another layer of protection.

Is There Fund Protection with Curve?

Every single transaction made using Curve has coverage from Mastercard’s Chargeback scheme. This essentially gives you the ability to dispute or chargeback transactions. If something goes wrong during a purchase and you cannot resolve the issue directly with the retailer, Curve can submit a chargeback for you, so you can have eligible purchases refunded.

What Platforms Does Curve Support?

The Curve application is available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play, so you can use it with either an iPhone or an Android device.

Conclusion

Curve is an application as well as a Mastercard that lets you seamlessly use all of your accounts via a single card to help track spending. Curve also lets you change the card used for past purchases and automatically categorizes your transactions to help with budgeting.

Visit Curve App

Curve App

8.6

Ease of Use

9.0/10

Fees

9.0/10

Reputation

8.0/10

Customer Support

8.0/10

Design

9.0/10

Pros

• Free Bank Card
• Registered with FCA
• Cashback Rewards
• 0% Fees for Purchases Abroad
• Insights Spending History

Cons

• Spending / Withdrawal Limits
• Account Setup Can Take a While

Visit