Curve Card Is The Best Points Trick For UK & European Travelers…

And you get £5 for free…

If this sounds like a sales pitch – we apologize – it’s not. We’re just big Curve Card fans and love double dipping on points and making our wallets look awesome at the same time. Here’s an easy breakdown of the absolutely genius things that Curve card offers to earn you extra points, save you cash and maximize your account security. Honestly, if it’s not already in your wallet, you’ve been missing out big time and you’ll soon understand exactly why. Oh – and it’s free…

What Is Curve?

Curve is the Swiss Army Knife of credit/debit cards. When you use Curve, it appears to merchants (places you spend money) as a Mastercard debit card, but you’re secretly able to use any Visa or Mastercard credit card to earn points for the transaction. That’s right, even if a place technically doesn’t accept credit card – you can use one and earn rewards from both Curve and your favorite rewards program, like an airline or hotel. With just one Curve card, you can pay with any of your cards, switching cards with the touch of a button. Your wallet will never look better.

How Does Curve Card Work?

You download the Curve app onto your phone. You register for a card (referral code C5CFD gets you £5 free). There’s no credit check or anything, just a phone number and address.  You then pair any Mastercard or Visa credit cards you’d like to use with the Curve card, and can begin using Curve for all your transactions. Wondering why it’s worth bothering? We’ll get there.  For starters, it’s contactless, has PIN, can withdraw cash without appearing as a cash transaction to your bank, makes it cheaper to pay abroad and looks awesome.

1% Foreign Transaction Fees

Most UK & European credit cards charge foreign transaction fees of 3% or more. A $1000 hotel stay would cost you $30 in foreign fees, as opposed to just $10 from Curve. By using Curve you’ll pay just 1% in Forex fees, while still using your favorite rewards credit card. Curve processes the transaction and immediately bills you in your local currency, so you never pay fees greater than 1%. You’ll also instantly know exactly how much you spent. That’s a 2% savings on almost every foreign transaction you make. Sold.

Switch Cards And Rebill Weeks Later

Have you already hit your spending threshold on one card, but just got a new card and want to put some spending onto the new one? You can use the “go back in time” feature to re run almost any transaction up to two weeks old. This is an awesome feature ensuring you’ll always earn the perfect rewards for everything you spend – even retroactively. So if you already spent £10,000 to earn a free IHG night with one card, and completed that weeks ago, but just got the new Virgin Atlantic card and want to put spend on that, you could go back and re bill an old transaction to trigger spending on the new card. Genius!

Earn Points On Taxes And Bills

The government rarely takes credit cards for tax and other transactions, but since your Curve card shows up as a Mastercard debit card – you can use it (even though you’re really paying by credit card)! That’s right – you can pay your tax bill, or at least part of it, and earn tons of points you’d otherwise miss out on. Some banks, including one that rhymes WAMEX will often allow you to pay your credit card bill with a debit card. Curve works as a debit card, even though it’s really fueled by your rewards earning credit card. With that in mind, you’re double dipping on points – paying off a credit card bill using a rewards card via your Curve debit card. You’ll earn rewards points for paying another rewards card off. We’ll let that sink in for a minute.

Earn 1% Cash Back For 3 Months

To get you addicted to Curve, the app offers 3 months where you earn 1% cash back at your three favorite retailers. This is in addition to any other points you’d earn from your rewards credit card, giving you an extra “point” for every purchase you make.  So if your favorite credit card earns two points for every buck you spend, you’ll get an extra Curve point too. That’s literally free money.

You can sign up for Curve here. The card is free and if you use referral code C5CFD when registering in the app, you’ll get £5 free.