I mainly use Curve as a card for nights out when I like to keep what I take out really light. Phone, ID and Curve. Also doesn’t matter if I lose it as it’s only the one card I need to cancel.
I wouldn’t use it for any big purchases as I prefer to use the actual credit card for those in case of issues.
Feel free to sign up and use my code (QZ0Y2) for £5.00 
Great bar that as well as Picnic but I don’t see either of them when out and about, strange.
Picnics are good, but Lion Bar even better.
But getting back on Topic, their advertising jingle used to be “what has a hazelnut in every bite. Topic” yet as school kids we chanted our own version “what has a hazelnut in every bite. Squirrel shit” 
I tried Curve a few months ago and it was declined (I feel like I posted on this thread), so was put off using it. But this thread again reminded me to give it a go - I’m going freelance, so have a bunch of stuff I can expense from my company account, so if I remember to use Curve I can have it come straight out of there instead of reimbursing myself - and happily it worked fine this time. It was nice to see the transaction appear immediately in the Monzo app and show up as the correct retailer (though without location data).
Awwwwww that’s disgusting. Ha ha ha that’s children for you.
I use curve to spend on my tandem card. Never had so many declines on a card as I have on tandem, yet I do the same transaction via curve and it’s fine!
That’s strange.
Curve charges cards as online transactions, so the Tandem card would work just fine there, as the card-present declines were due to their card chip’s quirks (just like the early CA cards crashing terminals) or their BIN being blacklisted for whatever reason.
it may not have been blacklisted but just not whitelisted
Possible as well, though I really don’t see why you would use a BIN whitelist - blacklist could make sense to take out all prepaid cards, etc, but a whitelist of all good BINs from all over the world would be a nightmare to manage and keep up to date.
You would be suprised. In Bulgaria one firm who operate POS terminals (BORICA) do it on a whitelist basis and newer UK bank cards would not work until they added the BINs to their database (Monzo was added last month). In some countries some ATM work this way too. It is mad!
Does this mean you get Distance Selling return rights if you purchase in store using Curve?
Technically yes - in practice I’m not so sure - Curve would fight back the chargeback and explain the situation, and MasterCard would definitely side in their favour.
Sounds like you might want to give Coconut a go, since it’s specifically designed for freelancers.
The Distance Selling Regulations no longer apply in British law. Are you thinking of the Consumer Contracts Regulations which the DSR was superseded by?
I signed up to their waiting list months ago and haven’t had any updates (other than an invite to an event they hosted). I’m using Tide at the moment which is just fine for sending and receiving my low volume of transactions. Also it’s currently only for sole traders and I’m running as a limited company so I guess that’s why I haven’t had news 
The 14-day returns?
Yeah that’s the one.
I absolutely don’t think so. Those rights derive from how an item was purchased, not how it was paid for. To turn the situation around: If an online shop offered “payment using chip and pin on delivery” you’d still get your 14 days returns.
Yeah in store you will not be covered as it’s for the items you can’t physically see and touch. So over the phone and online transactions are covered.