Curve, a financial services company based in London, has come out with a card and an accompanying mobile app that allows customers to scan all their debit and credit cards and then use each one for separate purchases with the one card.
Single payment card
A Curve card can be obtained with a one-time payment of £35, after which, it’s free to use. In order to set up the card, users download the app and scan an unlimited number of bank cards, at which point, they will be synced to the Curve card. Despite this, the card works just like any other card, and doesn’t require a battery.
“Curve combines a person’s credit and debit cards into one single payment card which is accepted everywhere MasterCard works, with Chip and Pin, magstripe and Contactless technology.”
In addition, “users can access foreign currency rates of the MasterCard wholesale rate plus 1% with no transaction fees, see and label transactions from all accounts in one screen in realtime, all whilst continuing to collect their existing reward points.”
Another huge bonus is that it allows users to collect reward points, including Nectar Points, Tesco ClubCard Points, and the like.
Security important
Of course, in any situation where large swathes of your financial information are kept in one place, security must be of the utmost importance.
“Curve protects financial information with industry-leading security and fraud prevention systems. With Curve your original card details and data are never revealed to the merchant. Instead, when making a purchase with Curve, online or instore, a unique token is used to process your payment, keeping identity and actual card numbers safe.”
"The concept of payments as we know it is on the brink of being shaken up in a meaningful way,” said Taavet Hinrikus, CEO and co-founder of Transferwise and investor in Curve in February 2016, at Curve’s launch. “Today, Curve makes the first step at being the company to finally make this significant change in impacting how people pay for goods and services.”