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Creation cancelling credit cards which have been used with a Curve Card

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Creation Financial Services, issuers of the IHG Rewards and (closed to new customers) Marriott Visa credit cards, made a very aggressive move on Friday in its dispute with Curve Card.

It appears that the majority of credit cards which had been used with a Curve Card are being closed.

One call centre agent said that 1,800 cardholders were impacted. We cannot confirm this number.

Creation closing IHG and Marriott credit cards used by Curve Card holders

The closure letter states that cards are being closed on 3rd December.

Based on reader discussions with the call centre, but not confirmed in writing by Creation:

  • annual free night vouchers on the IHG Rewards Premium credit card will still be desposited if the cardholder spends £10,000 before their card is closed
  • there will NOT be a pro-rata refund of the £99 annual fee on the IHG Rewards Premium credit card – although you would be free to dispute this with the Ombudsman

If you cannot trigger your free night voucher by 3rd December but would otherwise, you arguably have a case for a full refund of your IHG Rewards Premium £99 fee for the current year.

Why is Creation banning Curve Card holders?

It isn’t entirely clear what is driving this, although I was told by an independent industry consultant that it was being pushed by National Savings.

Curve Card, for those who don’t have one, is a debit card which allows you to recharge transactions to a linked credit card. You can learn more about Curve Card in this article.

This meant – most specifically – you could deposit money into National Savings and have it charged to a miles or points earning credit card as a purchase. Most Curve Card holders had a £9,000 daily limit albeit capped at £1.8 million per year.

Whilst Curve Card had always had blocks in place for payments to banks, there were certain grey areas such as National Savings, HMRC and various investment firms such as Hargreaves Lansdown.

Creation had initially sent out text message to cardholders a few weeks ago saying that its cards could no longer be used with Curve Card. I was told at that time that mass account closures would follow, and here we are.

One problem is that the ban is catching many people who used Curve Card purely for Apple Pay functionality. It was the only way to add your Creation card to Apple Pay.

For clarity …. the free IHG Rewards credit card is still open to new applicants. Creation is not pulling out of the UK and is only closing these 1,800 (TBC) accounts.

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Comments (863)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • TGLoyalty says:
    1 Oct1 October 12:56

    And some cards that haven’t clearly.

  • Crafty says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:00

    Wow. I don’t recall a precedent. Creation took a very long time to wake up here, and now that they have done so, appear to not only have thrown their toys out of the pram, but rocket-launched them full across the channel!

    • mycity says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:03

      I have been cancelled and never used my card with Curve and based on the chat thread I am not the only one.

  • Duncan says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:03

    Frustrating, but there you go. I’ve used my IHG card with Curve, but never for any transactions to NSI, HMRC, or anything else besides normal spend. Frustrating, but without Curve it was always a hard sell to use the card without Apple Pay.

  • BrianS says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:04

    I never used mine for the NS&I stuff and basically used it as I regularly would, to have all my cards on curve was just convenient.

    Looks like that will be me done with IHG if that’s the case. The premium card was a great way to build points and comfortably earn a free night. Oh well.

    • Alex W says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:22

      Same here. This credit card was the only thing tying me to IHG. It will take a while to use up all our points and vouchers, but once they’re gone I struggle to see IHG getting my business again.

      • Paul Pogba says:
        1 Oct1 October 14:13

        Its been hinted the card might end and I’d always planned on migrating my “loyalty” to Hilton and collecting via Virgin. I just wish I’d gone for the Premium card rather than free. I’ll have to try and upgrade.

  • KBuffett says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:05

    Hit them with a £750 charge:

    https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/resolving-complaint/case-fees

    • Crafty says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:06

      What’s the basis for the complaint?

      • Lee says:
        1 Oct1 October 13:26

        there will NOT be a pro-rata refund of the £99 annual fee on the IHG Rewards Premium credit card

        • Paul Pogba says:
          1 Oct1 October 14:14

          Their choice will soon be refund the card fees or pay an invoice to the FOS for 1,800 x £750 🙂

          • Rui N. says:
            1 Oct1 October 14:39

            Not everyone that got cancelled has the Black card.

          • JDB says:
            1 Oct1 October 14:46

            The £750 fee is only payable on complaints actually investigated by the FOS. If this actually gets to the FOS they will not be investigating 10, let 1800 cases. I am not sure if one can reasonably expect any refund of the fee AND the voucher which is what some seem to suggest.

          • Char Char says:
            2 Oct2 October 01:31

            @JDB the annual fee is not solely for the voucher

        • simonbr says:
          1 Oct1 October 17:41

          Lee, Have you been told this by somebody at Creation? I reckon they should reimburse part of the annual fee if they close the card?? And award the IHG free night!

        • Char Char says:
          2 Oct2 October 01:33

          That is their stated position but for 90% of people that is not acceptable and certainly questionable if taken to court or the Ombudsman

    • meta says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:10

      However, they might have calculated that £1.35 million or thereabouts is acceptable loss to them plus whatever FO rules…

    • Uncreate says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:13

      Exactly. If they want to treat us like crap, then they should expect the same in return.

  • Graham Walsh says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:07

    Wowzers, just got my letter in the post. I used Curve/Creation as they didn’t have Google pay. Never did any MS spend, just non Amex spend. Frustrating to say the least. It was a good card to get the free night

  • The Urbanite says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:09

    To be honest it’s surprising it has taken Creation this long to wake up. Quite a few accounts must have been costing them tens of thousands pa to keep open.

    Blame the interchange fee cap for this – before that became a thing they would have loved the extra volume of transactions.

    • ankomonkey says:
      1 Oct1 October 17:02

      Agree. I would be really shocked if Creation weren’t aware of some of these practices that have been taking place for years (long before Curve existed). If they have only just realised some of these routes existed then they really are weakly resourced.

  • Anna says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:09

    My free night triggers this month on the 23rd. 41 days to spend £10k 🤣

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