In the UK they’re doing nothing with the wallet feature.
In the EU, the rules there means that Apple have been told they can no longer restrict mobile phone payments to their own Apple Wallet and have to let other companies be able to setup their own payment alternative to Apple Wallet on iPhones. So, Curve have announced they’ll be launching their own alternative.
It’s only in the EU as neither the UK or US governments have forced anything similar (yet).
I suppose they might also launch it on Android worldwide if they wanted to. I’m still not clear exactly what their selling point will be on either platform though as the card already works on Google/Apple Pay.
There ‘selling point’ on doing this on iPhone in the EU is that legally, when they launch, Apple will have to give every user in the EU a pop-up choice to select their Wallet app.
I’m not sure what Curve’s current reach is with people - their website claims 5 million, but they’ll suddenly be in front of over 100 million EU customer.
Wouldn’t put it past Starling to put out a similar product.
They already offer Engine, why not one step further?
Just reopened my Curve account.
I remember back when I closed it some cards were charging cash advance for all Curve transactions.
Is that still the case with Virgin and Barclaycard cards?
Oh I get why they’re doing it, but what would they offer over just leaving the Curve card on Apple Pay and using the Curve app as is?
Virgin is putting them through as purchases for me.
Money - any transaction that goes through Apple Pay, Apple get a small payment for it from the banks.
If Curve can skip Apple, they get to keep that.
Yes - 0.15% is the cut Apple gets. However, the banks have little choice but to support Apple Pay, as it’s an expected feature and is demanded by their customer base.
I don’t see what sway Curve would have in that regard. No bank is going to voluntarily work with them or agree to pay them a cut of card spend. There is no incentive to do so.
If Curve are still charging your underlying card in the background, their processing fees will wipe out any interchange they get from using their virtual Mastercard as a proxy… my understanding was that their business is only viable right now due to subs.
I’m yet to see how they are going to make money from this wallet thing. Happy to be educated though, if any one knows how it’s going to work?
What we don’t want is multiple wallet apps. The EU means well on this an I support reigning in Apple & Google’s monopolies, but anything that fragments mobile wallets in the way that messaging, sports coverage etc. is a blow for the consumer.
That’s a benefit for Curve sure, but not for the user. I’m sure they will do something but it isn’t clear to me at this point.
What’s wrong with Apple Pay and google pay? The fee is absorbed by banks. Supported in apps and in browser on most of the websites. Imagine you now have curve pay. How many merchants would integrate with it? Plutus only 
This is solving a problem that does not exist
I suspect Curve’s pitch will be to offer cashback or something in order to get people through the door, but just like how many iOS users don’t change from Safari as the default getting people to change their default wallet app feels like a stretch.
Especially if anybody spends 5 minutes googling Curve before signing up and find all the horror stories.
There’s also the free overseas use for cards that currently charge you, depending on your Curve subscription.
My (conspiracy) theory in all this is that Curve is actually trying to sell itself to Paypal. So, things like setting itself up in the EU as an alternative to Apple Wallet isn’t so much about what actual (financial) benefit it would bring to Curve but more about Curve can launch this, and then Paypal can swoop in and acquire the company and add the alternative Wallet to their complete package.
Curve may not have the customer base to make much of an impact on this, but Paypal definitely does.
You can now add as many cards as you want to the basic free plan.
Although I had stopped using them, I completed a feedback survey which they followed up asking for a zoom meeting to discuss feedback. They gave me £20 curve cash for my time (30 mins)
I then started using it again, and they’ve offered me one month free Curve Pro, so I am going to use it for the month to see if the double transactions stop, the anti embarrassment mode works and collect 1% cash back for the month.
I do also use the fronted feature, to pay my BA amex card off with my Barclaycard avios card. Double win.
Not sure if it’s totally worth the 9.99 a month but for a month free, it’s not bad.
Killer FX and the non-EEA Cashback working very well. Takes a couple of days to actually post in the account but that’s alright. I’ll downgrade back to standard after I’m home but will upgrade when going to a non-EEA holiday.
Just be mindful that they send a new card when upgrading. So do it in plenty of time for the card to arrive. Gpay/Apple Pay is still instant
When I upgraded the for this trip it took 2 days for the card to arrive.
Don’t they allow you upgrade/downgrade and keeping the same physical card?
You can downgrade and keep the same card but they seem to replace it if you upgrade.