Tesco treating *all* Curve activity as cash advances

  • Dge's Avatar
    Typical. No reply when challenged. That is an answer in itself I suppose.

    And despite the promise to reply to my complaint within two business days, I still have no phone call. I guess they must be very busy....
  • WillPS's Avatar
    Window shopper
    Just clear proof that Tesco Bank don't care about their customers tbh. I'm on holiday, but I've cleared my cards off in full. If I don't have a response by the time I get back I'll close my accounts.

    If this means anything to you, - please respond.
  • ScottW's Avatar
    Employee
    I’m really sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days. We’ve been taking all of your comments and questions on board and we wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing for our customers in this situation.

    All of our credit card customers were notified in April that we were making changes to our credit card fees and specifically how non-purchase transactions, like topping up a pre-paid card or buying foreign currency outside of Tesco Bank, were now going to be treated as cash transactions.

    Curve customers using a Tesco Bank Credit Card to fund their account were charged this fee as the card operates in the manner of a prepaid card, where two consecutive transactions take place with the Tesco Bank Credit Card funding an e-money account held by Curve that then immediately passes payment through to the merchant.

    We recognise that the application of this fee when a Tesco Bank credit card is used to fund Curve accounts has created some confusion for customers. We apologise to customers for this confusion. As a result, we have chosen to pause the charging of this fee in relation to Curve customers while we review this matter. Any customer who has been charged to date will be refunded, and should we make any future changes we will let our customers know.
  • WillPS's Avatar
    Window shopper
    Thank you for the update. Can you please confirm:a) will all transactions made using Curve since June 1st no longer carry interest (until the statement due date, as usual)?b) will all transactions made from today onwards be subject to the standard 'interest free until statement date' scheme, and no 'cash transaction fee'?c) if any of the above changes, all customers will be written to with specific reference to how Curve card will be treated, at least 60 days in advance of the change?
  • Dge's Avatar
    Thank you . Could you please confirm:

    1. if individual action must be taken by each affected customer to reclaim the fees
    2. whether Tesco will be doing this automatically, and
    3. An idea of timescale

    I assume of course that interest added as a result of these fees will also be refunded.
  • flyuk's Avatar
    Thank you for the update Scott. As I am overseas for a long period, this will switch all my spending back to Tesco through Curve.

    Thank you to Tesco also for listening and acting.
  • ScottW's Avatar
    Employee
    We don’t have a timescale for the refunds yet, but they will be carried out automatically, so no-one will need to call. Our Credit Card team are working on the solution right now, but as soon as we get an update about it, we’ll let you all know. No-one will be out of pocket due to the charges and the interest will be adjusted.



    As for interest, the transactions will be treated as purchases for the time being, so if you do currently pay interest on your account and you don’t clear the balance of the account off in full and on time, interest may be added to your statement. The pause to the charges will be applied in the coming days, so it’s still possible that any transactions made over the next few days will still have the same fees applied, but as discussed in my last post, these will be refunded.



    We will be notifying customers about what happens next regarding services like Curve soon, but we don’t have a timescale yet. There will be plenty of notice though and we’ll make sure that everything is clearly laid out.
  • screendj's Avatar
    Hi Scott, thanks for your reply and to Tesco Bank for taking our feedback and acting - it's very much appreciated. Your message sounded like you're blaming customers for not understanding your systems and card fees, or for not predicting that you would identity Curve as a prepaid card - I hope that's not the case and that during this charging pause your team will come to the right conclusion for us all and not add an extra fee going forward. Cheers.
  • Boman1882's Avatar
    Hi Scott, Just want to clarify. I have a 0% on purchases card. So far I have been charged interest on the curve transactions + the cash fee.
    Wanted to confirm that I will be refunded both the cash fee and the interest charged and that neither charges will effect the promotion period for the 0% on purchases.
    i.e. that Tesco's is not going to start charging me interest on the balance of other purchases I have made. Thanks Alan
  • WillPS's Avatar
    Window shopper
    - I would also like assurance that no 'cash transactions' will be reported to the Credit Reference Agencies. This is the sort of thing which could potentially stop me getting a mortgage.