If you’re abroad so often that you barely remember what sleeping in your bed feels like, Curve Metal can be a good idea for your finances. It is a premium option and is an alternative option to the standard Curve account.
Our review looks at how it works, how to get it and whether the extra features are worth the monthly fee.
Curve Metal is the top-tier Curve subscription, including all the perks and benefits Curve has to offer, most of which are linked to travelling. It comes with a fancy-looking metal debit card that you can have in black, rose or blue. Its more down-to-earth siblings are the standard Curve plan which is free. Curve X which offers a couple of extra benefits, and the intermediate premium service Curve Black.
Curve’s basic functionality is to allow you to only take one single card with you when you leave the house – the Curve card. You can connect all your Mastercard and Visa cards to it using the Curve app, then select which one you want Curve to take money from and simply pay with the Curve card.
Curve is especially useful when you go abroad because even if your regular cards charge a foreign transaction fee, Curve scraps them in most cases by treating your transaction as if it was a sterling one.
Curve Metal takes all this to the next level by adding travel insurance and other perks to Curve’s basic features.
In return for Curve Metal’s £14.99 monthly fee, you get:
The monthly fee can also be paid in advance for the whole year, for £150. If you’re reasonably sure you’ll keep Curve Metal for the full 12 months, it’s definitely worth it, as you’ll basically get 2 months for free.
Curve Metal gets you airport lounge access via LoungeKey, a programme that offers lounges in more than 1,000 airports in 120 countries.
You just need to show your Curve Metal card at the entrance and use it to pay for it. It’s normally £20 per access per person (yes, you can buy passes for your travel companions as well), but the price can vary depending on the lounge. Don’t leave your Curve at home or you won’t be able to get in.
Lounge benefits vary, but you’ll usually get a nice and comfy seating area, newspapers to read and some refreshments at the very least. Anything else you might need to know about the LoungeKey programme can be found in this dedicated guide.
Some of the extra benefits Curve Metal has on the free Curve option are also included in Curve Black. Basically, the following features are unique to Metal:
You’ll need to weigh up whether you’re likely to make use of these additional benefits to work out whether the extra £5 a month is worth paying.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that while you can get rid of your Black membership anytime, the minimum period you can keep Curve Metal for is six months, unless you pay a £50 fee.
Have you decided to give Curve Metal a go? You need to do the following:
The key words here are frequent traveller. If you don’t go abroad at least four or five times a year, there’s really no point in considering a premium Curve membership at all, as it’ll be cheaper to just pay the occasional ATM fee if you need more than £200 cash, and perhaps purchase travel insurance separately.
If you do travel a lot, you might find that Curve Black works better for you than Curve Metal as it gives you many of the features at a cheaper price.
However, if you fancy having mobile phone insurance included, or if you habitually travel to countries where you pay cash, Curve Metal could still be a good solution, especially if you pay the annual £150 fee in advance to essentially get a two-month discount. But you do need to either be a real car rental aficionado or get close to the £600 limit for fee-free foreign ATM withdrawals every month to make it worth it.
Curve Black offers all the benefits of Curve, plus a decent series of perks. Our review looks at how it works, how much it costs and who it’s suitable for.
Challenger bank Monzo now offers business banking. Check out what accounts it provides and whether they could be the right business banking solution for you.
Just got a job in the UK and need a bank account to have your salary paid into, but have no proof of address? Here’s what you can do.
Can cryptocurrency be used to build a peer-to-peer bank for everyone? BABB is certainly trying, so we took a look at how it’s supposed to work.
You can earn interests on your savings with both Atom Bank and Monzo. Our review helps you figure out which challenger does it in a way that works for you.
Planning a trip abroad? Make sure you have a travel money card and app set up and ready to use abroad. Check out our guide to find the best one for you!
Glint lets customers buy, save and spend real gold. We explain how the app works in more detail, and give you some of our impressions.
Fed up with the hassle of using multiple bank cards? Curve helps you connect all your accounts to a single app and payment card.
Is Tuxedo the right solution for you? We explore the account and all of the features of Tuxedo’s prepaid cards. Read our review to get the low down on Tuxedo.
Looking for a digital-only bank account? We explore the app and all of the fees and features that come with a Pockit online current account.
