It seems that things aren’t good between Curve and American Express – who are blocking transactions with Curve.
For those who aren’t in the know Curve is an interesting product. It’s an intermediate card, where you can link other credit cards, earn rewards, and manage where payments go.
With the Curve card being a Mastercard, in theory, you can load funds from American Express and spend it on Mastercard – which is helpful (least of all, there are merchants out there that will not touch American Express with a barge poll)
The model has been interesting enough for Curve to launch a Metal option on Monday, allowing American Express payments without fees.
However, it seems American Express isn’t playing nice as of midnight 30th January, with the following release:
We are extremely sorry that the top-up functionality of your Amex wallet is currently disabled.
Like thousands of other UK merchants, Curve has a valid merchant agreement to accept Amex payments into its e-wallet. However, on Tuesday evening, Amex decided to terminate this agreement and block all Amex transactions to Curve with immediate effect.
Amex has given no good or fair reason for their decision and we believe it is entirely disproportionate and discriminatory to Curve and all our (joint) customers. UK payment regulations clearly state that Curve should be allowed to access the Amex payment network on a level-playing field with every other fee-paying and legitimate merchant.
Rest assured that you can still spend the funds that you have already topped up to your existing Amex Wallets. If you have contacted us for support, we apologise for the delay in response and will endeavour to do so as soon as possible. We will update you as soon as we have any further information.
With your interests in mind, and our mission to deliver a truly innovative product, we intend to fight Amex’s decision with our full might. We believe financial freedom is the future and we are prepared to fight for yours.
Team Curve
The upshots
- You can no longer load your Curve with American Express funds currently
- Any funds already loaded to Curve, you can still spend
- American Express are doing the equivalent of taking their ball home.
I currently don’t hold a single American Express card (mainly due to a disagreement with them some years ago… and their products don’t appeal to me in the slightest).
This could end in many ways between Curve and American Express. And if you’re a Curve user (like me), one to watch as other issuers keep an eye on what’s happening.
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