Tesco treating *all* Curve activity as cash advances

  • jsmith9114's Avatar
    I’ve been using my curve card frequently with my Tesco Premium Credit Card and have not received a letter. The first I knew about it was today when Curve emailed me, So now I have a load of charges.

    Considering I’m paying a £150 annual fee for my credit card I think it’s a bit of a cheek!

    James
  • heb999's Avatar
    My husband has been charged a transaction fee for a £200 cash withdrawal made on his Curve card linked to his Tesco Mastercard. He did not receive a letter from Tesco about the changes to the Ts & Cs regarding usage of his Curve card. He had been just about to apply for the Tesco Premium Mastercard and focussing a lot more spending at Tesco but is now reconsidering. If Tesco just introduce new charges without informing its customers it might be preferable to use a different credit card. Is it likely that Tesco will refund the eroneous charge?
  • flyuk's Avatar
    This is actually pointless. Don't Tesco realise that letting Curve take the payment like they do with Paypal absolves them of any credit card protection responsibility? Also, it makes zero difference to Tesco if the purchase is made via Curve or directly on the card, the interest rate stays the same. All this does is erode customer benefits, forcing them to use other cards with Curve. Is Tesco that naive in thinking that there are not literally dozens of other cards willing to act fairly in the Credid Card market? It just shows they are acting with little regard for their customers, while looking for the extra few % of profit. They will sting a few customers, who will think twice about using Tesco with Curve again, costing them more than the % they originally made. Looks good in a board meeting, but has little if any positive effect on profit.
  • Dge's Avatar
    Absolutely agree Will. It seems that Tesco admit now to specifically targeting Curve customers but without having the courage (or sense of propriety/decent customer service) to warn those very people up front. Why would I, or anyone, look at my very physical Mastercard debit card and assume that this is what Tesco is targeting with their reference to prepaid or virtual cards?? It is exactly the type of ridiculous nonsense that the regulator will eventually strike down. It would seem that Tesco has enough self-inflicted blunders to resolve without adding to them.
    Heavy handed and misguided actions like this taken at helicopter level from a C level executive just undermine the hard work and good customer service from the thousands of diligent Tesco workers in the (literal) shopfloor. Time to involve Martin Lewis again! He must know the Tesco board by first names by now.
  • Dge's Avatar
    I am another "customer" that did *not* receive a second letter warning of these specific transactions although I have been using a Curve card since March. As I have posted elsewhere why on earth would I look at my very physical Mastercard debit card and connect it to a letter from Tesco warning of cash advance fees on prepayment and virtual cards?! It's as relevant as a letter about a lettuce!
    I have complained to your customer service and an awaiting a callback. I will escalate as far as I need to and that includes the regulator and consumer protection groups. Every so often a company does something so blatantly stupid and against all common sense that you have to take a step back and wonder at how it made it through the many layers of PR and legal architecture. And then take action to make sure common sense is enforced.
  • JeffdeB1's Avatar
    It is totally incorrect to say that Curve is a prepaid card or operates like a prepaid card. It cannot be loaded or topped up. Your customer service team has been instructed to say the fee is applied because it is a ‘virtual’ which Curve also is not. Tesco needs to get its story straight and to do this promptly.

    Please also correct your post.

    Curve does not fall in to any of the categories allegedly notified in April. Even if Curve operated ‘like a prepaid card’ as you say in your post, that does not make it a prepaid card such that you can apply a cash advance fee.

    This has been going on for over a week; it is inexcusable that Tesco has still not addressed it.
  • JeffdeB1's Avatar
    The fact you claim that Curve operates ‘like a prepaid card’ does not entitle Tesco to charge a fee for a prepaid card. The Curve card is not covered within your recently amended terms. Please get your legal team to address immediately. It is affecting a number of people for ten days.
  • JeffdeB1's Avatar
    Absolutely right. Tesco typically just isn’t listening. I also didn’t receive the Notice of Variation until 21 May and that quite clearly doesn’t include the Curve card anyway. Very odd that Tesco thought it necessary to send the May letter if they really had notified customers in April.
  • sibbahz's Avatar
    I got the warning letter, but did not recognise Curve being the cause, as it is not a VIRTUAL card. It is a physical card. Due to this, I had to call customer services to figure out if fraud had taken place on my card as the letter stated that I had done a virtual or gambling/cash transaction in the past. As soon as it was said that Curve was the cause of this, I just closed by Tesco credit card account there and then. I do not carry the tesco card around, therfore without curve support, it is useless. Typical Tesco really. Also, most people with Curve cards will be using it to manage multiple credit/debit card accounts, therefore with Tesco being the only ones to do this, most will just charge their purchases to another card instead. Completely stupid move by Tesco.
  • screendj's Avatar
    Hi , thanks for reponding to customers here. I agree with as my stuation is largely the same, and look forward to your answers to his questions, quoted below: Q1: Why do Tesco Bank charge customers cash fees for using credit cards, when literally no other card issuer are making this charge? Q2: Why were a subset of customers given absolutely no notice whatsoever of charges?Q3a: Why are customers being stuck with cash advance charges even after getting the purchases refunded?Q3b: Why have customer service personnel been given absolutely no leeway to waive these fees, particularly given the complete lack of notice? I have received no letters from Tesco Bank about a change to charges and have had a retailer refund transaction but you've so far still kept the fee. In a call with customer services today the gentleman could not refund the charges and suggested I should log a complaint. I've opted to respond on here and on Twitter rather than use a less social one-to-one complaints process. In my opinion, this inadequate communication, negative treatment of customers and slow pick-up of technologies (contactless, andoid/apple pay, app features) is not good for us and even worse for your reputation. New lean FinTech companies are snapping at your heels with functionality and value, and once they build a solid lending history, you will need a solid business model and customer offering to compete. If someone influencial there wants a customer's objective opinion feel free to get in touch.Thanks.