Curve card alternatives in the UK

Looking for a new way to manage your money? If you’ve got too many debit/credit cards and accounts, and find it difficult to keep track of them all, a solution like Curve could be helpful.

In this guide, we’ll give you the lowdown on Curve, along with some alternatives available in the UK right now. We’ll look at providers like Chase, Revolut, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, Apple Wallet and Wise.

This should help you choose the right option for you, and make it easier to manage your day-to-day spending.

What is the Curve card?

Curve is a digital wallet, card and app. It’s not a bank account in its own right, but is more of a digital wallet with a physical card. It offers a way to bring together all of your different payment cards, so you can spend using just one card - the Curve card.

You can add a selection of linked credit and debit cards to your account, and then choose which one you want to pay with using your Curve card. Or you can use your Curve wallet with Google Pay, Apple Pay or a similar service, so you don’t need to carry a card at all.

Curve also offers:

• Go Back in Time feature - move previous payments to a different card
• Fee-free FX rates (limited by plan)
• Smart Rules - where you decide which card spends when
• Cashback (selected plans)
• Discounted worldwide airport LoungeKey access (selected plans).

6 Curve card alternatives in the UK

Now, let’s take a look at a few of the best Curve card alternatives in the UK.

It’s worth bearing in mind that none of these are exact matches for what Curve offers, as it’s pretty unique on the market. But each has at least one feature in common with Curve, so could be worth checking out as an alternative.

Chase

If you’re looking for an account that offers cashback like Curve, Chase could be worth a look. It’s a licensed bank, owned by US financial services giant JPMorgan Chase.

You’ll get everything you’d expect with a UK current account, including a debit card that works with mobile wallets. Chase also offers fee-free spending and cash withdrawals overseas, so is a decent option for travel.³

But where it’s most similar to Curve is its cashback offer. With Chase, you’ll get 1% cashback on everyday spending for the first year - up to a maximum of £15 a month.³

And this is available for no account or monthly fees. With Curve, you’d need to be on at least the Curve Pay Pro plan for £9.99 a month to get 1% cashback with 6 selected retailers.⁴

Revolut

Want extra perks in exchange for a higher monthly plan fee? This is what you’ll get with Revolut, a digital account and card which piles on the extras the more you pay in monthly fees - just like Curve.

Although it depends on the plan, perks include:

• Partner subscriptions
• Everyday insurance
• Discounted airline lounge access (like Curve)
• Travel insurance - including trip cancellation, global medical cover, car hire excess insurance and winter sports insurance.

Like Curve, Revolut is also good for travel. It lets you make fee-free ATM withdrawals up to a certain limit, and charges no exchange fees on midweek currency conversions (but adds a 1% conversion charge during the weekend).⁵

Revolut plans cost from £0 to £45 a month.¹

Google Wallet

The mobile wallet from Google works on all Android phones, and gives you a way to bring together all your payment cards in one app - just like Curve. However, unlike Curve it doesn’t offer a separate physical card.

There are no monthly plan fees or any other fees to worry about either. You can select a card, then tap to pay using just your phone wherever contactless payments are accepted.

But Google Wallet also goes a step further than Curve, as it lets you keep all of the following in your virtual wallet too:

• Train, bus and other public transport tickets
• Tickets for gigs, shows and sporting events
• Loyalty and discount cards
• Boarding passes
• Digital car keys
• Proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Samsung Wallet

Samsung Wallet works in a very similar way to Google Wallet, except you can only use it on Samsung phones and other devices like the Samsung Galaxy Watch.

You can use it to store all of your payment cards, just like with Curve. But it doesn’t have a separate physical card like the Curve Card.

You can use Samsung Wallet to virtually store other things too, such as:

• Tickets for movies, sports and performances
• Boarding passes for flights
• Public transport tickets
• Digital keys
• Memberships, loyalty and rewards cards.

Apple Wallet

The last of our mobile wallets is Apple Wallet, which is just for iOS devices. It works in a similar way to Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet, letting you store multiple payment cards virtually within the app - but with no physical card like the Curve Card.

Apple Wallet also lets you store and use:

• Boarding passes
• Tickets for public transport, sports and live events
• Digital car keys
• Loyalty and rewards cards.

Wise

Want a card that’s great for travel? You might want to take a look at the Wise card, from the UK-based money services provider Wise.

Like Curve, the Wise card uses mid-market exchange rates (close to the rates you see on Google) when spending or withdrawing cash in other currencies. The difference is that with Wise this is unlimited, whereas with Curve you can only access fee-free FX rates up to £250 a month on the free plan. Upgrade to a paid plan and this limit increased.⁴

Wise doesn’t have any plan fees, and is transparent about the costs of exchanging currency. If you spend or withdraw money in a foreign currency, you’ll pay low fees from just 0.33%*. If you have the currency in your Wise account already, it’s free.

You’ll also get two free ATM withdrawals for up to 200 GBP (or currency equivalent) each month with the Wise card. Wise will not charge you for these withdrawals, but additional charges may occur from independent ATM networks.

On the Curve free plan, all foreign ATM withdrawals come with a fee of 2.99%, with an additional 1.5% fee at weekends.⁶

The Wise card works in 150+ countries worldwide, works with mobile wallets and can be managed in the handy Wise app. The physical card is available for a one-time fee of just £7, when you open a Wise account online. Or get the virtual Wise card for £0 that you can also add to mobile wallets.

🚀 Sign up with Wise for free

Sources used:

Sources last checked on date: 27-Mar-2025