Support for Multi-Currency Cards

currency
#22

I also really would like multi-currency support (which is also partially discussed and voted for here and here).

After thinking about @Curve_Marie 's point regarding regulatory considerations, I realized that a simple pass-through might really not be feasible. However, a feasible compromise between that, and annoying manual currency switching, might be as follows:

Provide multiple-choice currency selection for every card, with one currency still marked default for transactions not covered by the multiple-choice selection.

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#23

@Curve_Marie was talking about general considerations during product development. Unless I missed something, no one said there was any problem from a regulatory standpoint with always passing through the original currency to the underlying card, in fact PayPal does just that.

We are basically talking about having an automated rule system to decide in what currency the charge will be made to the underlying card instead of the user selecting and changing manually each time. There is no difference between the two from a regulatory standpoint

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#24

Agreed that there was no explicit mention of compliance issues for this scenario by her. I still think these might be implicated, though, since Curve can only charge cards in a limited set of currencies from what I understand. To me, that implies that they might currently not be able to process a MYR charge without converting it to one of the supported currencies.* The situation would still be improved compared to the current, of course, if you could set a card to NOT convert any supported currencies (GBP, EUR, USD, …), and to only convert unsupported ones (like MYR) to a “default” one (e.g. EUR) that still has to be chosen for the card.

*If they could do this, like e.g. PayPal, then of course that would be even better – but I feel like that might be a bigger issue than just changing the code/logic of the app.

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#25

No, youre not understanding it correctly. It’s the exact opposite, they can only do fx for those “supported” currencies. For currencies not on that list they’ll pass through the original currency. The only thing missing is a button to always pass through the currency even when it is a currency they support for fx. That page is severely outdated

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#26

When I select an unsupported currency - IDR - the app automatically sets my card as GBP.
I’d like to use starling for this currency as they’ll charge me the MC rate - which is better than any added 1.5%.
Can anyone confirm that I’ll be charged in IDR to my underlying card? Or should I bring my card with me?

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#27

It’s a good idea to have a backup card anyway, @josepmc.

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#28

When you are spending in an unsupported currency, your Curve card will be charged in GBP.

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#29

@Curve_Marie Could you clarify what do you mean with ‘your Curve card will be charged in GBP’?

What I mean is:

  • Which exchange rate are you going to be using (the one specified by your T&Cs with the respective +% fee or the MC one?)
  • Will any limit be applicable (e.g. 500 pounds on the Blue card, after which it gets +2%).

I think this should be clarified and the entire ‘Unsupported currencies’ category be scrapped altogether. One would be better off using a card like Starling/DKB/Arquia that doesn’t add any commission altogether for these currencies.

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#30

I agree changes on how fx works would be welcome. Transferwise uses their own fx for the currencies they support and Mastercard for unsupported currencies. Similarly, Curve could use the current model for supported currencies and Mastercard for everything else

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#31

When you pay in IDR your Curve card will be charged in IDR, you underlying card will be charged in GBP. There usual fees will be applied along with Mastercard’s exchange rate.

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#32

@Curve_Marie I take it that you’d state that with a Curve Blue one would be charged 2% after spending 500 pounds. However, what’s going to happen on the weekends? The link you posted is stating this:

From Fridays at 23:59 to Sundays 23:59, the UK foreign exchange markets are closed. During this time, we take the rate from Friday and charge an additional 0.5% for all transactions made in GBP, EUR and USD and 1.5% for all other supported currencies.

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#33

@Curve_Marie, so what you are saying is that the support page on supported/unsupported currencies is not outdated (as was suggested earlier in this thread)? Could you perhaps also clarify the following scenarios:

  • Card currency set as GBP (supported), charge currency IDR (unsupported) – your previous answers suggest this would be charged in EUR, using MC rate conversion (rather than Curve interbank rates)?

  • Card currency set as IDR (unlike @josepmc my app seems to allow that?!), charge currency IDR – gets passed through, or gets converted twice (IDR -> GBP -> IDR)?!

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#34

@tew You can ‘select’ IDR, but the card currency will be set automatically to GBP. That’s just the nice perk they’re talking about.

Frankly I do the following:

  • Have a starling account.
  • Use Curve with starling underlying where curve ‘supports’ the currency (so that I don’t get the crappy fee they add during the weekend)
  • Use Starling where curve doesn’t support the currency (so that I don’t get any crappy fees that Curve adds).

Let me point out how better is using Starling rather than curve for supported currencies during the weekend. Perhaps you won’t get the interbank rate, but, Starling will set the exchange rate to when the transaction goes out from ‘Pending’.
This means you’ll always get the week rate - which is way better than anything you get on the weekend.

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