Digital banking gets whacky

New banking app Curve touts “financial time travel” service.

New banking app Curve touts “financial time travel” service.

Curve, a banking app which consolidates a user’s existing accounts into a single app and MasterCard service, is claiming a world-first with the launch of its “Go Back in Time” option.

The service allows users to switch the card used for a transaction up to two weeks after payment has been made. Curve says that this will cut out the time and hassle that is typically associated with having mistakenly paid for something with the wrong card.

Like many digital banking challengers, Curve allows users to manage their money in one place. The service is only available to the self-employed at present, with a consumer version of the card in the pipeline.

Curve has had over 50,000 sign-ups in beta mode, and has already processed over £50m in payments across more than 100 countries. The firm has indicated that it expects to announce its full launch, as well as the closing of a Series A investment round, at some point this year. The company has already raised $5m in seed funding.

“This update is a solution to a common payments problem, and we know first-hand it’s a feature our users are excited about,” explained Arthur Leung, product lead at Curve. “Now, if a user makes a payment with the wrong debit or credit card, they can retrospectively switch the card they use to pay any time in the next two weeks. No manually re-wiring money; no missed loyalty points; no unintentional incurred fees by using the wrong card - with Go Back in Time, it’s just one tap. Curve takes care of the rest.”

Digital banking apps continue to proliferate as Phase 2 of Open Banking draws nearer. Earlier this week, for example, we reported the launch of ING-owned money management app Yolt. It is increasingly difficult to differentiate between these services, but time-travel is certainly unique within the market, and a distinguishing feature for Curve.