With one card to rule them all, Curve makes sure that you will always get the real exchange rate, with no hidden fees.

Your holiday abroad doesn’t need to be costly and stressful

For a UK family of four taking a two-week break, the average holiday cost is £4792. Expenditure on holidays are expected - flights, hotel and lots of meals out. But there are also unexpected costs wrapped up in a trip - fees for spending abroad with your debit and credit cards; replacing damaged/stolen items or making an insurance claim.

A little-known fact is that banks and card companies charge up to 5% on foreign spend, which in the average family trip abroad would mean almost £240 in extra cost!

It is also estimated that more than half of UK holidaymakers have had a major item lost or stolen, this equates to £179 million annually. Losing or having your wallet stolen accounts for a large portion of this and leaves many holiday goers spending hours on the phone with multiple banks trying to prove transactions they never made are from stolen cards.

Curve can help make these experiences a thing of the past. How does Curve do this?

• Zero conversion fee abroad for all of your cards
• Only have to carry one lockable card
• No more topping-up needed
• Instantly see all your spendings with real time notifications to your mobile.
• One PIN to remember, and one point of contact with a 24/7 customer experience team

Curve is changing the game of travel, starting with eliminating hidden fees

Why? Only Curve gives its customers the ability to spend abroad on any of their current VisaⓇ and MastercardⓇ debit and credit cards and avoid any of the currency exchange fees they are usually charged. How? It allows them to sync all their cards with the Curve card and spend via the Curve card. Every time a user makes a payment with the Curve card, the card of their choosing will be charged. Like AppleⓇ Pay or GoogleⓇ Pay, but with a card. This also means that when they spend abroad through their Curve card, Curve does the currency exchange instead of their bank at the real exchange rate – saving customers up to 5% in fees which would otherwise be charged by their bank when they spend abroad.

A recent study showed holiday makers face a multimillion pound rip-off when changing holiday cash at the airport, potentially losing up to £354.17 for every £1,000 charged. Curve has a free cash withdrawal cap of £200 for Curve Blue customers and £400 for Curve Black customers on all major currencies, and gives the customers the market rate, so they can easily withdraw cash anywhere MastercardⓇ is accepted. Curve charges a flat £2 fee or 2% for withdrawals above the cap. This also means customers can limit the amount of cash they carry with them on holiday, reducing the pain should their wallet get lost or stolen.

No more topping-up abroad

Another advantage of the Curve card is that there are no pesky top-ups needed, or pre-buying of currencies, which is seen in the common low-cost travel prepaid cards that exists today. With these prepaid cards, another funding method is inconveniently required while travelling, and most of them have a minimum top-up of £100, with some or most of it usually ending up unused and unrecoverable after the holiday. Curve leaves all of that behind: it auto charges the chosen account as its cardholders shop, similarly to how AppleⓇ or GoogleⓇ Pay work, but with a card that works everywhere Mastercard is accepted.

Carrying less cards means less risk

More and more people are becoming savvy holidaymakers with research showing almost two people in five don't take jewellery on holiday and one in five don't take any electronics. But a customer leaving their whole wallet at home wasn’t an option, until now. With Curve you can link all your cards to your one card and just take Curve out, leaving the rest safely at home or in the hotel’s safe. If you lose your Curve card, it can be locked in a tap. The card and app also hold no bank details from other cards, and are fully safe. The result? Travelling worry-free thanks to Curve simple control.
See your spending in multiple currencies instantly

Customers will also get a notification each time they spend with Curve that shows them the amount they spent in their home currency and local currency for each transaction. They’ll no longer have to do panicked mental math after paying and wonder if they have been ripped off in a foreign currency. They’ll also be able to feel reassured they are seeing every transaction that goes through on their accounts – keeping them secure and in control.

Great value for Curve users

In sum, this is one of the best travel currency propositions yet! Not only it is the most convenient (as customers do not need to pre-buy currencies), it also fits the spending patterns of over 80% of the market. Based on customer analysis showing that over 80% of travellers spend less than £500 abroad per month, using Curve’s Blue card abroad could save customers up to £25 each trip. And for those frequent travellers who spend thousands of pounds abroad, Curve created a Black tier with a £15,000 annual cap, accompanied by 1% cashback from high retailers such as Amazon, Uber, Selfridges, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Ocado and more.

Curve’s zero currency conversion fees service extends across more than 150 global currencies, which is also quite unique in the space. Other providers in the market (such as Revolut), only support less than 30 currencies.