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

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• Paul says:

  1 Oct1 October 16:33

  Suggest all who can lodge a complaint – Creation customer care contacted and they won’t even confirm why the card is to be cancelled other than saying it’s a business decision. I don’t even really use my IHG through curve? They will take a complaint by phone – took me over an hour to get through as per their wonderful service. Reviews on trust-pilot may be in order too!

  • Richard says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:07

    It’s a long time since I worked in retail banking but it seems a bit odd if they insist on a phone call to log a complaint. We were always told that a complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction however expressed, so we could not insist that someone called a particular number or put something in writing — if they expressed their dissatisfaction in any way though any channel that should be considered, and handled, as a complaint. If they have directed you away from (say) live chat to the call centre because they don’t accept complaints through live chat, I’d be adding that to my complaint too.

• gt94sss2 says:

  1 Oct1 October 16:41

  I’ve also been notified that Creation are closing one of my 3 Creation cards – the one I use on a daily basis with Curve until the other week.

  It’s Creation branded one, not a hotel points based one :/

  I use it for almost everything from shopping to PayPal.. largely as Creation don’t support Google Play.

• Craig says:

  1 Oct1 October 16:49

  No letter for me, yet. No MS, no paying one CC from another but I have used it with Curve.

  • John says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:17

    Ditto. No letter today, only really used the card for Apple Pay transactions. There was the occasional cash withdrawal but nothing too serious. I have two options:

    – I’m lucky and I keep my card
    – Royal Mail are slow at delivering my letter (sadly I think this is the most likely option) 🙁

    • Youllnever says:

      1 Oct1 October 17:29

      If you have ever used your card with Curve or even linked it, it’s almost certain that your letter is simply on its way.

  • SammyJ says:

    2 Oct2 October 10:23

    Same here, not used it with curve for a few years and then only a couple of times for Costco back when they didn’t accept CCs. No letter yet but if they don’t close it, I will probably close it anyway as a point of principle.

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  1 Oct1 October 17:11

  We have now decided to close our Curve card.

  It is not an all-in-one card, since Creation/IHG dropped it.

  And lots of others offer FX free deals.

  In fact, it actually now looks quite toxic.

  One of my customers the other day worked for a FinTech – they had spent years with a traditional bank and were wanted for their compliance experience.

  But the attitude in fintechs is, we will get round to compliance once we get the business up and running!

  Makes me now feel it best to keep clear of R and M and all these other new firms.

  • John says:

    1 Oct1 October 18:15

    R and M take compliance rather seriously though – to the point of being overzealous

    • BP says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:46

      R had a huge amount of people leave as they didn’t want to be associated with the practises. May be better now.

      • CarpalTravel says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:41

        Not from what I have heard. A relative worked there and another FinTech before that and all the stories I heard absolutely back up Colins point.

• jek says:

  1 Oct1 October 17:13

  The credit card application page for Creation is now offline.

  • Froggee says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:27

    Hah! Possibly got in just in time.

• Memesweeper says:

  1 Oct1 October 17:28

  Who regulates NS&I? The FCA. I think a complaint there is warranted. Applying pressure to others in the industry because they couldn’t control a few MSers on their own platform is a disgrace. The collateral damage to Curve , Creation and their customers is disproportionate.

  • Memesweeper says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:33

    Thinking about it, of course, you have to complain to NS&I first, which I think I will, demanding recompense for the loss of benefits of my Creation card. My last complaint for the broken “back button” issue on their website was an easy £50.

    • JDB says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:12

      That seems like a non-starter since you weren’t supposed to use the Creation card at NS&I but used an intermediary card and you can hardly hold them responsible for the card you put behind Curve.

      • Memesweeper says:

        1 Oct1 October 18:34

        Plenty of people who were impacted never used NS&I at all. NS&Is behaviour has negatively impacted their customers (and others).

      • Harrier25 says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:04

        God JDB. You are a Financial Regulator encyclopaedia. So annoying! 😂

      • kitten says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:05

        Remember card companies can’t suddenly impose new conditions unilaterally. They are required to give notice. You’ll probably find that you’ve not been properly informed, with due notice, of changes concerning NS&I and possibly others.

        • JDB says:

          1 Oct1 October 19:11

          What new T&Cs are you saying haven’t been notified?

      • Char Char says:

        2 Oct2 October 09:37

        JDB obviously has either missed out or has some incentive for people to not get compensated

      • Char Char says:

        2 Oct2 October 09:39

        Wrong, you weren’t supposed to use credit cards correct, which nobody did, they used Curve who took the payment and they were free to block Curve.

  • Harrier25 says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:38

    It’s the government’s savings bank so, I don’t know, but it may not be answerable to the FCA and maybe comes under the jurisdiction of the Bank of England instead.

    • Memesweeper says:

      1 Oct1 October 17:42

      They are also subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. I think the starter for ten is to ask under FOI what action they have taken with respect to users of the Curve card to deposit funds into their products.

      • Mattb says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:25

        Ultimately creation have decided to close these accounts and they are allowed to do so given the appropriate notice is given for whatever reason. NS&I are irrelevant here.

    • JDB says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:15

      NS&I is regulated by the FCA as far as consumers are concerned. Like all banks it is also regulated by the PRA/Bank of England for matters relating to its solvency.

      • Red Flyer says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:11

        Cant see what the issue and big fuss is – you can still deposit to NS&I if you want, albeit you have to use a debit card rather than a workaround that earned hotel points??!

• Anna says:

  1 Oct1 October 17:34

  Is anyone going to take out a Creation loan then pay it off before December 3rd? 😂

  • Harrier25 says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:40

    I assume your letter arrived in the end then Anna?

    • Anna says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:43

      3 of them!

    • Anna says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:44

      All 3 of them!

      • Harrier25 says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:12

        Oh well, at least 50,000 retention points from Amex will help to slightly ease the pain. Just a shame as like you, it was great for topping up Che. Have no idea if beardy will be as accommodating. It ends a profitable Hilton earning route too! 😭

  • Char Char says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:40

    I would if you could give me some benefit to doing so

• Robert says:

  1 Oct1 October 17:36

  Apologies if it’s been asked/answered already (but we’re up to 12 pages now…) but what’s the legal basis for this cancellation? Have we been doing something against the Creation T&C by simply linking the card to Curve that they’ve only just now realised? I renewed on 24 September, and certainly wouldn’t have used the card for the last week if there’d have been some more warning!

  • Ryan says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:40

    T&Cs say they can close without reason at any time (with notice) as the same with most accounts / banks

    If they don’t want to supply you (you are their customer) then they don’t have to

    • Robert says:

      1 Oct1 October 17:44

      Fair. I assumed there’d be something along those lines, just wondered if this was a specific breach of something in their eyes… If there seems to be a route to get a pro rata refund I’ll join in… I get it if I cancelled, but if THEY cancel without a breach of a T&C on our part, seems a bit off they get to keep the full fee for an entire year for 3 month’s use

    • jj says:

      1 Oct1 October 17:46

      Ryan, true. But regarless of the contravtual terms, they still have to treat you fairly as defined by the FCA.

      • Roy says:

        1 Oct1 October 20:28

        It’s hard to see how they can be considered to be acting in any way fairly towards the (majority?) of Curve users who have never engaged in any manufactured spending, cash recycling, NS&I transactions, or anything like that.

    • Mark says:

      1 Oct1 October 19:49

      And interestingly there’s no reason in the letter. Just “we’re closing you’re account”. Presumably deliberate on the basis they are simply exercising their right to do that without wanting to argue cause. Personally I think they’ve concluded that anyone who uses Curve is unlikely to be the kind of customer that’s ever going to be profitable to them in terms of things like interest charges and foreign exchange fees, regardless of where the spend went and even if they weren’t putting large amounts through the card.

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