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Curve Card to add 1.5% fee for HMRC tax payments – unless you upgrade to Curve Metal

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SUNDAY EDIT: On Sunday evening, Curve put details of these changes back on its website, with two changes:

for new cardholders from Monday 25th November, these new policies apply immediately.  Existing cardholders will not switch to the new rules until 24th January (not 21st as originally stated)

the new policy will only apply to ‘we don’t accept credit cards’ merchants specifically listed by Curve, and initially only HMRC will be on that list.  You will NOT be surcharged for using Curve at any other merchant which only accepts debit cards.

MONDAY 6pm EDIT: Curve has added some additional exclusions to the website:

After an initial trial period with HMRC, other government payments such as National Savings & Investments, DVLA Vehicle Tax, and Student Loan Payments will be included as well.

Back to the original article ….

Curve Card briefly added a section to its website yesterday about new fees it is introducing for debit card payments which are recharged to a credit card.

The information disappeared from the website after pushback in Curve’s community forum, but it was detailed enough to assume that it is happening.

The main target here is HMRC tax payments.  It will also apply wherever you use Curve Card to make a debit card payment – at a merchant which does not accept credit cards – which you recharge to a credit card.

I’m not sure that many people have huge amounts of debit card payments apart from HMRC.  Most (not all) credit card companies are blocked by Curve using its get-out of ‘no financial services transactions’.  I think all debit card payments to mortgages, pensions or savings accounts are already blocked.

If you don’t know anything about Curve Card, you may want to read my introduction here before continuing.

Why do people use Curve Card to pay HMRC?

HMRC stopped accepting credit cards for tax payments last year, after the Government stopped merchants imposing fees for credit card use.

This was a serious blow for miles and points collectors who were not on PAYE, as it removed the ability to earn substantial sums of miles from paying VAT, NI, income tax etc.

Curve Card offered a way around this.  You could link a points-earning Mastercard or Visa credit card to your Curve Card and use it to pay HMRC.  Curve Card is treated as a debit card so it is accepted.

This was, essentially, free miles for people like myself.  I have used the bulk of my £50,000 Curve Card limit this year paying HMRC bills.  I recharged them to my Miles & More Global Traveller card, earning close to (50,000 x 1.25) 62,500 Lufthansa Miles & More miles for free.

It looks like this is coming to an end ….

This is what was posted on the Curve Card website for a period yesterday:

Can I use Curve to make payments to HMRC?

If you decide to use the Curve card with a credit card selected as your payment card, starting on the 21st of January 2020, you may be charged a fee. For Curve Blue (free) and Curve Black (including Curve Black Legacy users) customers you will be charged 1.5% of the amount of the transaction. There is no charge to Curve Metal customers.

Curve introducing fee for HMRC payments

Here is the full list of Q&A uploaded to and then removed from the site:

For which transactions will the Debit Fronted Credit fees apply?
Can I use Curve to make payments to HMRC?
Does Curve charge a fee to make payments to HMRC?
Are there spending limits to HMRC payments?
I got a decline after making a payment to HMRC. What happened?

It is pointless (sic) paying a 1.5% fee to pay HMRC via Curve Card.  There are very few scenarios where the underlying miles and points earned will be worth that.

The only exceptions may be if you have a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard, earning 1.5 miles per £1, or the Miles & More Global Traveller card, earning 1.25 miles per £1.

Your miles would be costing you 1p and 1.2p respectively.  This is not a great deal but some people may find it acceptable.  I don’t.

It is worth noting that Curve Metal customers will not pay a fee.  This is intriguing.  Curve Metal costs £14.95 per month or £150 per year.  If you have substantial tax bills, the upgrade may be attractive.

Let’s run some numbers …..

GREAT DEAL – Pay £50k of tax on a Miles & More Mastercard (1.25 miles per £1) = 62,500 Miles & More miles for £150 Curve Metal fee

GREAT DEAL – Pay £40k of tax on a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard (1.5 miles per £1) = 60,000 Virgin Flying Club miles for £150 Curve Metal fee

AVERAGE DEAL – Pay £30k of tax on an IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard (2 points per £1) = 60,000 status-qualifying IHG Rewards Club points (valued by me at £240) for £150 Curve Metal fee

BAD DEAL – Pay £20k of tax on a HSBC Premier Mastercard (0.5 Avios or other miles per £1) = 10,000 Avios for £150 Curve Metal fee

The bottom line is that:

if you pay enough to HMRC each year, and

you have a generous-enough points-earning Visa or Mastercard credit card linked to Curve

…. then Curve Card via Curve Metal is still an attractive way to pay the Inland Revenue or any other debit card bill which accepts Curve.

Curve introducing fees for paying Inland Revenue

Don’t forget that Curve Metal has other benefits too

On top of the ability to pay unlimited sums to HMRC – subject to your Curve Card limits, which for most people are £50,000 of charges per year – your £150 annual Curve Metal fee comes with other benefits:

This page of the Curve website compares the three different types of Curve Card.  With regards to Curve Metal:

Card: You get a funky 18g brushed metal card in red, blue or rose gold.  I have been trialling the blue one and it is a bit boring to be honest so I’d recommend one of the others!

Foreign exchange fees:  Unlimited transactions with no fee (0.5% fee $ or € and 1.5% fee for other currencies applies to transactions made on a Saturday or Sunday)

ATM withdrawals: Overseas: £600 per 30-day period for free, 2% thereafter / UK: £200 per 30-day period fair use cap

These are the key benefits.  There are other benefits which I do not value highly but which some readers may find useful:

Travel insurance underwritten by AXA

Gadget insurance (maximum value £800 with a £50 excess)

Car rental CDW waiver coverage  (I have this via Amex Platinum but if you do hire cars and don’t have a standalone policy this will be worth something to you – the car must be worth under £25,000 however)

Airport lounge access via LoungeKey (this is NOT free access, you will need to pay a fee of £20 per visit)

1% cashback from six premium retailers.  This is on top of the rewards you will earn from your underlying card.

You won’t necessarily get £150 of annual benefit from this package, but you will get something.  And, of course, you will be retaining the ability to make substantial payments to HMRC via Curve Card.

Final thoughts ….

There had been rumours that Curve Card was introducing fees for paying the Inland Revenue after it sent out a questionnaire recently seeking views on the topic.

What is new here is the addition of charges for ALL debit card payments made with a Curve Card which are recharged to a credit card.

If the structure above turns out to be correct then many of our SME readers will still be OK.  They will have £50,000-worth of HMRC charges per year across VAT, PAYE, income tax etc and the upgrade to Curve Metal can be justified if you have a generous Visa or Mastercard credit card linked.

The losers are likely to be those with under £10,000 or so of HMRC or other non-financial debit card payments.  If this is you, it won’t be worth paying £150 per year for Curve Metal and it won’t be worth paying a 1.5% fee to use Curve Blue or Curve Black.

Let’s see if anything changes between now and the proposed launch date of 21st January.

PS …

If you have read this article without knowing anything at all about Curve Card, read my introductory article here.

Curve will pay you £10 for trying it out if you use our link.

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Comments (586)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Andy says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:28

    “The main target here is HMRC tax payments, but it will also apply wherever you use Curve Card to make a debit card payment which you recharge to a credit card.”

    Isn’t this the WHOLE point of a curve card and therefore make it useless? I guess I’m stupid enough to believe the hype about it being the only card you need. So I have that and my amex card in my wallet. I use the curve card to withdraw cash, to pay for stuff where Amex isn’t accepted etc. If they’re going to start charging me 1.5% for that then it’s practically useless. I’d have to take my credit card out with me too and if that’s the case why would I use Curve at all?

    • Rob says:
      24 Nov24 November 10:17

      Bad wording – I meant ‘using it at a place which only accepts debit cards’.

  • Mike says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:29

    I’ll probably keep it for ATM withdrawals in non EU countries (and if metrobank change their t&cs post Brexit) but annoyed about HMRC as my c. £5k self assessment clearly doesn’t come close to justifying metal.

  • Lev441 says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:29

    If curve goes ahead with this change (which I’m not sure how they can do it based on the banning of credit card surcharges under EU law) then that’s me saying goodbye.

    Tesco debit card looks like the only way to go.. Revolut didn’t like it when I paid a (large) business tax bill and said it was against their t’s and c’s and that would be blocked if I do it again…

    • jc says:
      24 Nov24 November 12:01

      Did they say which T or C it contravened?

      • Lev441 says:
        25 Nov25 November 03:06

        This was the message I got

        ‘Please be advised that Revolut as a financial regulated business has reserved right to not support some of the activities. Revolut is not a facility that would support using service in order to gain extra benefits from other financial products – so in that case, we would not accept delivering service in order to gain benefits coming from the movements made on a credit card.
        We are delighted to provide you with a beyond banking Revolut experience, but we cannot support this type of usage.
        Thank you for understanding.’

    • Polly says:
      24 Nov24 November 12:16

      Hey Lev,
      What’s the earning rate on the Tesco debit card then? For outside Tesco, l mean? Is it 1 or 2 cc pts for £8? Ta…

      • Secret Squirrel says:
        24 Nov24 November 13:05

        1 point per £8

      • Chrisasaurus says:
        24 Nov24 November 14:40

        1pt per FULL £ and that’s PER txn

        So anything up to 7.99 earns Nada

        So essentially useless for the size of legitimate debit card spends (eg lunch, tube etc) and useful only on large txns that they moan at you making

      • Lev441 says:
        25 Nov25 November 03:08

        Sorry missed your comment earlier polly – I make good use of Tesco debit card – do a fair amount of Tesco spend so 1 cc per £1 as well as 1 cc per £1 of fuel rather than per £2 when you use the debit card as a Clubcard for fuel!

        • Polly says:
          25 Nov25 November 03:43

          Ok tnx..was thinking outside tesco use as an extra avios earner. 1 cc pt per £8 is so low but better than nothing.
          Anyway it looks like curve are really only after a slice of the HMRC payments as it’s now updated and reiterated the specified target. HMRC. So we might still be ok otherwise.

    • Andrew L says:
      24 Nov24 November 12:25

      Why not pay with Revolut in installments over the year to avoid a big lump sum?

    • Andrew porwol says:
      24 Nov24 November 12:51

      Be warned tesco hate any use they deem non personal! They’ve said if I use my card for any more business use they will close my account

  • Jase says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:36

    At least it doesn’t kick in until 21 Jan 2020. Here is the page from Google cache:

    Does Curve charge a fee to make payments to HMRC?
    If you use a debit card as your underlying payment card with Curve, no fees will be charged.

    From the 21st of January, 2020, if you wish to use your credit card to fund these type of payments through Curve, the following charges apply:

    For Curve Blue (free) and Black customers, you will be charged 1.5% of the amount of the transaction.

    For Metal customers, no charge will be applied.

    Please bear in mind that fees may be applied by your underlying card issuer for making such transactions using Curve and that Curve is not liable for such fees. Please refer to the terms and conditions of your underlying card issuer.

    • Speedbird676 says:
      24 Nov24 November 10:33

      Interesting it kicks in ten days before the Self Assessment payment deadline. Perhaps HMRC are sponsoring them to encourage people to pay their tax bill early 🙂

    • Lady London says:
      24 Nov24 November 15:07

      Remember they will still be required to give sufficient notice to each individual cardholder at least 30 days ahead of implementation. This would presumably need to be by letter or email. You should then also have the right not to accept the new proposed terms and terminate without penalty.

      A sneaky change to terms on the website or even a banner probs won’t be legally sufficient.

  • Holger Sell says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:38

    Curve looking more and more like an obsolete product now if this is happening. Apart from the FX fees the other parts of Curve is not attractive in my view. Also the benefits for metal are very questionable in my view.

    • Andrew L says:
      24 Nov24 November 09:49

      Clearly the uptake of the metal card has been disappointing, mainly because the offering is so poor or other financial businesses are offering the same at a cheaper monthly cost, so this looks like a desperate way to try and tempt more people to a metal subscription. But as always, Curve have created a backlash. Plus I don’t think they knew that Revolut can be used instead.

  • Peter says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:53

    Only had the card 3 weeks as I was going to use the card to pay my travel agent for our upcoming cruises as they dont take any CCs but do take DDs. That can be anything from £5k to £10k each time several times a year. Is it worth having just for the FX perk???
    Looks like curve is heading for the shredder!

    • Anna says:
      24 Nov24 November 10:03

      Your travel agent sells high end holidays but doesn’t accept credit cards? I’d be taking my business elsewhere…

      • Lady London says:
        24 Nov24 November 15:10

        Yes because you lose a lot of protection if you don’t pay by credit card. Proved especially important for travel purchases in past few years.

        Follow Anna’s advice.

    • MD says:
      24 Nov24 November 10:14

      I agree with Anna. What sort of travel agent doesn’t take CCs in this day and age? Sounds like your problem should be with the agent, not Curve. But in any case, if you pay for your cruise before 21/01/20 it sounds like you’ll beat the deadline.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      24 Nov24 November 10:43

      It’s also unlikely that your initial Curve limits will let you pay for the cruise without rather a lot of transactions spread over a few months.

      If you explain to the travel agent that it’s CC or book elsewhere I bet a CC terminal magically appears….

    • Lee says:
      24 Nov24 November 11:25

      You travel agent can normally pass the credit card straight to the cruise company. It doesn’t even touch their systems. Ask them if they can do this. Maybe they do not know that they can,

      But I have to agree with the above, I would be going elsewhere.

      You can also ask the cruise company to take the booking over.

  • Speedbird676 says:
    24 Nov24 November 10:29

    How would we know whether the primary transaction is being processed as a debit card transaction, except in the case of HMRC who don’t accept personal credit cards? On most websites you just enter your card number and you’re done – very few nowadays ask you to select the card type from a list.

    I’ve only just closed my Tesco current account after the interest rate reduction and the Lloyds Avios MasterCard having a higher earning rate. Perhaps time to rethink that one.

    • Rob says:
      24 Nov24 November 11:14

      It is ONLY at places that refuse credit cards.

      • C says:
        24 Nov24 November 12:24

        This could also impact foreign usage, and thus limit the benefits for those seeking to offset FX charges. In the US, merchants are charged differential fees for credit and debit card processing. As I understand Curve is technically a prepaid debit card, does this mean that any charge in the US (and elsewhere with a similar structure) would be transmitted as a debit card payment, thereby incurring the surcharge?

  • Christian says:
    24 Nov24 November 10:43

    Curve’s ability to head full speed in the wrong direction never ceases to amaze me. Investors to their recent Crowdcube round were offered a year of metal so I think there’s a lot of truth in the opinion that people just weren’t upgrading.

    Does anyone know if Curve works with the new version of the Capital on tap card yet? Given they charge the uncapped corporate interchange rate you’ve got to think Curve is likely to block that route too. They seem determined to make themselves as little used as possible.

    Winning their battle with Amex is about the only ace they’ve got left, if they can get lucky there.

    • Rob says:
      24 Nov24 November 11:13

      Don’t know yet, should become clear very soon.

      Capital On Tap is improving its offering this week so the question becomes key.

      • Roger says:
        24 Nov24 November 11:27

        That is interesting, when are we expecting an article on it?

        • Rob says:
          24 Nov24 November 13:04

          When they update their site!

          Oddly anyone who applied last week got the new improved product despite applying for something worse. Not an easy basis for an article though!

          Suffice it to say that it knocks the new SME BA Amex out of the park.

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