Curve is not a bank, and that is the point. It is a single Mastercard and digital wallet that sits on top of the cards you already have: tap Curve at the till and the payment is passed to whichever debit or credit card you have chosen in the app. Change your mind within a set window and Go Back in Time moves the payment to a different card. Pay abroad and Curve converts the currency for you, often more cheaply than your own bank would. Lloyds Banking Group thought enough of the idea to buy the company. Here is what it costs and where the limits bite.
This review is information, not financial advice.
Curve Promo Code box
- Offer: free Curve Pay plan with £250 (€250) a month of fee-free spending abroad; refer-a-friend offer of 1% cashback for 30 days for both of you, up to £15 each
- Promo Code: No Promo Code needed
- Who qualifies: new customers aged 18 or over living in the UK or the EEA; the referral reward needs an invite from an existing customer
- Key terms: the invitee must make at least five card payments of £2 or more; cashback is paid as Curve Cash points with no cash value; offer period ends 31 December 2026
| Offer detail | What you get |
|---|---|
| Promo Code | No Promo Code needed: the referral reward comes through an existing customer’s invite |
| Welcome offer | Free Curve Pay plan; via referral, 1% cashback on card spend for 30 days, capped at £15 for each person |
| Who qualifies | New customers aged 18+ resident in the UK or EEA |
| Key terms | At least five transactions of £2 or more; excludes gambling, financial services, ATM withdrawals and some other spending; Curve Cash points have no cash value |
| How to claim | Accept a referral invite, download Curve Pay, link your cards and make five qualifying payments |
Curve: key facts
- Official website: curve.com
- Owner: Curve UK Limited, owned by Lloyds Banking Group (acquisition completed May 2026)
- Headquarters: London, UK
- Founded: 2015
- Regulation: FCA-authorised e-money institution, firm reference number 900926 (Curve UK Limited); Bank of Lithuania e-money licence no. 73 (Curve Europe UAB); funds safeguarded, not covered by deposit insurance
- Ratings: App Store 4.6 (452 ratings, Irish App Store); Trustpilot 2.3 (12,997 reviews)
- Headline offer: Free Curve Pay plan with £250 (€250) a month fee-free FX; referral: 1% cashback for 30 days for both, up to £15 each, until 31 December 2026
- Promo Code: No Promo Code needed
- Price from: Free; Curve Pay X £/€5.99 a month (US$7.98)
- Free plan or trial: Yes: Curve Pay, £/€250 fee-free FX a month, then 2.99%; 1.5% weekend markup
- Payment methods: Linked Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards
- Best features: One card that routes payments to your existing cards; Go Back in Time to move past payments between cards; Fee-free FX allowances from £250 to £100,000 a month by plan
Key facts
- Owner: Lloyds Banking Group, which completed its acquisition in May 2026; founded in London in 2015
- Regulation: Curve UK Limited is authorised by the FCA to issue e-money (firm reference number 900926); Curve Europe UAB holds Bank of Lithuania e-money licence no. 73
- Protection: e-money funds are safeguarded, not covered by deposit insurance
- Plans: Curve Pay (free), Pay X £5.99, Pay Pro £9.99, Pay Pro+ £17.99 a month
- Fee-free FX each month: £250 (free), £3,333 (X), £50,000 (Pro), £100,000 (Pro+)
- App ratings: 4.6 on the Irish App Store (452 ratings); Trustpilot 2.3 from 12,997 reviews
What Curve is and who owns it
Curve was founded in London in 2015 by Shachar Bialick and launched in the UK and Ireland in 2018. It became known for Go Back in Time, which lets you move a payment from one linked card to another after you have made it, and for letting people use cards from banks without good mobile wallets on Apple Pay, Google Pay or a smart ring.
Lloyds Banking Group agreed to buy Curve in November 2025, a deal reported at about £120 million, and completed it in May 2026. Lloyds plans to fold Curve’s wallet technology into its own app; Curve said at the time that nothing changes for existing customers.
Curve prices and plans: Curve Pay, X, Pro and Pro+
Curve shows the same figure in pounds and euros (so Pay X is £5.99 in the UK and €5.99 in the EEA). Dollar figures are conversions for comparison.
| Curve Pay | Curve Pay X | Curve Pay Pro | Curve Pay Pro+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Free | £/€5.99 (US$7.98) | £/€9.99 (US$13.31) | £/€17.99 (US$23.97) |
| Annual option | None | None | £/€99.90 (US$133.13) | £/€179.90 (US$239.73) |
| Fee-free FX a month | £/€250 | £/€3,333 | £/€50,000 | £/€100,000 |
| FX fee above allowance | 2.99% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Weekend markup | 1.5% | None | None | None |
| Fee-free foreign ATM a month | None | £/€300 | £/€500 | £/€1,000 |
| ATM fee above that | £2 or 2%, whichever is higher | Same | Same | Same |
| Go Back in Time | 3 payments, up to 30 days old | 3 payments, up to 60 days | Unlimited, up to 90 days | Unlimited, up to 120 days |
| Cashback | Selected Curve Cash offers (UK) | 1% outside Europe | 1% outside Europe; 1% at 6 chosen retailers | 1% outside Europe; 1% at 12 chosen retailers |
Curve Pay is free and fine for light use: a few hundred pounds of spending abroad a month, everyday payments at home and two Smart Rules.
Pay X removes the weekend markup, lifts the fee-free allowance to £3,333 and includes a physical card and fee-free cash abroad up to £300 a month.
Pay Pro suits frequent travellers who also want unlimited Go Back in Time and cashback at six chosen retailers. Paying annually brings it to £99.90, about £8.33 a month.
Pay Pro+ adds discounted LoungeKey airport lounge access, cashback at 12 retailers and £1,500 of business card spending free each month.
Free plan, trial and referral offer
The free Curve Pay plan is permanent rather than a trial. Curve’s current referral terms, version 3, run until 31 December 2026: when an existing customer invites you and you sign up, you both earn 1% cashback on card spending for 30 days, capped at £15 each, paid as Curve Cash points. You need to make at least five payments of £2 or more. ATM withdrawals, gambling, financial services, government services and education payments do not count, and the points have no cash value outside Curve.
FX fees, worked through
Curve converts at Mastercard’s wholesale daily rate, then adds its own fee only above your allowance, plus a weekend markup on the free plan.
A weekend in Valletta. A Mancunian couple fly to Malta for a Saturday and Sunday and spend €400 on the Curve Pay free plan, linked to a sterling debit card. That is £337.07 at our reference rate. The first £250 is inside the monthly allowance; the remaining £87.07 attracts 2.99%, or £2.60. Because it is the weekend, the 1.5% markup applies to all of it: £5.06. Total Curve fees: £7.66 (US$10.21 / €9.09). On Pay X the same weekend costs nothing in Curve fees, but the plan costs £5.99 a month, so it only pays for itself if you travel most months.
A Danish freelancer paid in sterling. Curve cannot receive money, so a Copenhagen developer paid £2,000 by a London client still needs a sterling account elsewhere, such as Wise or Revolut. Where Curve helps is spending. Linking her Danish krone debit card and spending £600 (€712.02) on a midweek trip to see the client, she pays nothing on the first €250 and 2.99% on the remaining €462.02: €13.81 (US$15.51 / £11.64). Add 1.5% if she pays at the weekend. On Pay X the trip costs nothing in fees.
Key features
- One card for all your cards: link debit and credit cards and choose which one pays
- Go Back in Time: move a past payment to another card
- Smart Rules: route payments automatically, for example groceries to one card and travel to another
- Curve Cash: cashback offers paid as points
- Wearables: works with rings and watches that support contactless payment
Regulation, safety and protection
Curve is an e-money institution, not a bank. In the UK, Curve UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA to issue e-money (firm reference number 900926). In the EEA, Curve Europe UAB is licensed by the Bank of Lithuania (licence no. 73, issued 22 October 2020). Any balance held with Curve is e-money kept in a safeguarding account, which should be returned in full if Curve fails, but it is not covered by a deposit insurance scheme. In practice most Curve users hold little or nothing with Curve itself, because the money stays on the cards they link. Curve’s plans page lists Section 75 protection for UK customers.
Who can use Curve
Curve is open to adults resident in the UK or an EEA country. UK customers see prices and limits in pounds; EEA customers in euros. It is not offered to US residents.
How to sign up and use Curve
- If a friend has invited you, open their referral link first.
- Download Curve Pay from the App Store or Google Play and create an account.
- Verify your identity with photo ID.
- Link your existing Visa or Mastercard debit and credit cards.
- Add Curve to your phone’s wallet or set it as your Android payment app, choose a default card and pay.
Customer service
Curve’s help centre answers most questions about plans, limits and Go Back in Time. Trustpilot shows that Curve has not replied to negative reviews, and many reviewers describe automated replies and long waits.
What users say about Curve
Curve’s Trustpilot score is 2.3 out of 5 from 12,997 reviews. The distribution is polarised: 57% five-star and 25% one-star. Happy users like how quickly it sets up, the ability to use any card from a phone or ring, and the savings abroad. The complaints are about cards or accounts being blocked without explanation, sometimes for weeks, subscription fees continuing while an account is blocked, and support that is hard to reach. The App Store rating in Ireland is 4.6 from 452 ratings.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Uses the cards you already have, so no need to switch banks
- £250 of fee-free spending abroad a month, free
- Go Back in Time is unique and genuinely useful
- FCA and Bank of Lithuania regulated, now owned by Lloyds
Cons
- 2.99% fee above the free allowance and 1.5% at weekends on the free plan
- Cannot receive money or hold savings
- No deposit insurance on any balance held with Curve
- Poor Trustpilot score, with complaints about blocked accounts
- Not available outside the UK and EEA
Curve vs Wise vs Revolut vs N26
| Curve | Wise | Revolut | N26 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Card wallet over your own cards | Multi-currency account and card | Multi-currency app account | Licensed German bank |
| Free plan | £250 a month fee-free FX | No subscription; card £5 | Standard plan | Standard plan |
| FX on free tier | 2.99% above £250; 1.5% at weekends | Conversion fee from 0.52% | 1% above £1,000 a month; 1% at weekends | No N26 fee on card payments |
| Receive sterling | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Savings | No | Varies by country | Varies by plan | 0.25% to 1.50% |
| UK residents | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Curve makes most sense if you are happy with your bank and want better rates abroad and more control over which card pays. If you want to receive and hold foreign currency, Wise or Revolut do more. For eurozone residents, N26’s free account already removes card fees abroad.
Curve FAQs
Is Curve free?
Yes. Curve Pay is free, with £250 (or €250) of fee-free spending abroad each month. Paid plans start at £5.99 a month.
What does Curve charge abroad?
On the free plan, 2.99% above £250 a month and a 1.5% weekend markup. Paid plans charge 1% above their allowance and no weekend markup.
Is Curve safe?
Curve UK Limited is FCA-authorised (firm reference number 900926) and Curve Europe UAB is licensed by the Bank of Lithuania. Funds held with Curve are safeguarded rather than covered by deposit insurance.
Who owns Curve?
Lloyds Banking Group, which completed its purchase in May 2026.
Is there a Curve referral code?
Referrals work through invite links from existing customers. Until 31 December 2026 both people get 1% cashback for 30 days, up to £15 each, once the new customer makes five payments of £2 or more.
What is Go Back in Time?
It lets you move a past payment from one linked card to another: up to 30 days back on the free plan and 120 days on Pro+.
Can I use Curve in the US?
Curve is offered to residents of the UK and EEA, not the US. UK and EEA customers can use the card when travelling in the US.
Curve vs Revolut: which is better for travel?
Revolut’s free plan has a larger monthly allowance at £1,000 and a 1% fee above it; Curve’s free plan allows £250 before charging 2.99%. Curve’s advantage is that it keeps your existing cards in use.
Is Curve Pay Pro worth it?
For frequent travellers who spend more than a few hundred pounds abroad most months, yes, especially paid annually at £99.90. For an annual holiday, the free plan or Pay X for a month is enough.
Verdict
Curve is a clever layer rather than a bank, and for people who already like their bank cards it can take the sting out of spending abroad. The free plan is decent for a weekend away, Pay X is the one to switch on for a longer trip, and Go Back in Time remains a feature nobody else offers. The customer service record is the big drawback. Keep a second card handy in case Curve blocks yours.
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