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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 (860)

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

  • Wally1976 says:
    1 Oct1 October 22:49

    I was quite taken aback by the brevity and bluntness of the letter which contained no explanation at all! Once they’d blocked Curve, this card was next to useless to me anyway (at least while our Hilton Barclaycards are still alive)!

  • Lula says:
    1 Oct1 October 23:00

    Just got home to find my letter too. Sad days. I was unlikely to put much through it next year anyway as we’re going on a 6 month holiday.

  • Redeyedonkey says:
    2 Oct2 October 00:43

    My feeling on this is that I’m pretty angry with Curve – they clearly haven’t had a clean and straightforward relationship with MasterCard or the main cards used by their customers and we’ve all (curve + creation customers) lost access to no longer issued cards (the Marriott for some and IHG for many) due to Curve.

    Sure some of you have made out like bandits – and I am genuinely happy for you – but many of us would have benefitted more long term from just banking our quick 10k spend and free nights absent of any Curve nonsense – Curve was a convenience/Apple Pay thing etc etc.

    I almost never got one after the AMEX debacle but … there was so much positivity on here and elsewhere I talked myself around. Great idea from a terrible company is my conclusion in the end. Shame.

    • David says:
      2 Oct2 October 01:06

      Same

    • Callum says:
      2 Oct2 October 04:29

      This has nothing to do with Mastercard, and I don’t think it’s particularly realistic for Curve to have had direct relationships with hundreds of financial organisations (though I know you just said the “main” ones). I’m not sure what that relationship would even entail – just the organisation saying “yes, I’m ok with this”? I’m not really sure why any organisation would explicitly say that anyway given it potentially means they’re missing out on possible fees and it can sometimes be used to circumvent restrictions (yes – they should be able to detect it and stop/charge for it, but why bother with the extra hassle?). Plus, as we saw with Amex, that approval can change at any moment!

  • C says:
    2 Oct2 October 00:49

    Received the letter today. Who do they think they are. I am entitled to use curve. How dare they

    • VerdantBacon says:
      2 Oct2 October 07:06

      Who do you think you are? They’re entitled to cancel their card for whatever reason they like

  • Char Char says:
    2 Oct2 October 01:43

    Anyone not paying off creation with another credit card have been missing out seeing……

  • Track says:
    2 Oct2 October 01:44

    From reading comments on here: Creation are stupids.

    Within their own rules, cash withdrawals and cash-like transactions are allowed.

    Curve has been passing MCCs.

    Instead of taking “a righteous stance”, Creation should have implemented the charging for cash withdrawals + interest, as Tesco bank done rather quickly. Then they would have a stream of income covering their risks and trouble, instead of the shady avoidance to refund the annual fees.

    • jil says:
      2 Oct2 October 06:36

      Cash withdrawal has £200 monthly limit, I doubt it’s the cash withdrawal that caused the problem.

      Also I think curve changes the transaction type or mcc for cash withdrawal, otherwise card issuer won’t need to do anything to charge cash withdrawal

      • J says:
        2 Oct2 October 09:17

        That limit was only ever on paper.

      • Track says:
        3 Oct3 October 07:30

        No Jil. This is not about cash withdrawal limits on Curve end (eg set by Curve).

        Creation and any other credit card could have treated NS&I transactions done via Curve or any other similar transactions as cash-like.

        They could have collected extra charges and interest off them, fully correct within own terms and industry practice. The customers would have no leg to stand to question charges and interest for the cash-like transactions.

        Will tell you more, the customers wouldn’t have closed their credit card en mass — they would just stop the transactions! No need to for policing, red flags, risk systems, AML systems and compliance staff — just put an appropriate charge and undesired activity will cease…

  • Anna T says:
    2 Oct2 October 06:38

    Was going to top up Ernie with bendy backed by Hong Kong but did get the warning email couple weeks ago. Think it’s probably not advisable?

    • SteveJ says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:25

      Do what you like, bendy will block your card straight after but who cares, bendy is dead in the water, might has we’ll have one last hurrah IMO.

    • Kate Last says:
      2 Oct2 October 17:26

      Who are Ernie and Bendy?

      • rob(staaaar) says:
        3 Oct3 October 00:33

        @kate Last – yep, I’m lost on Earnie, although Bendy’s no longer driving me round the curve…

  • Kamil says:
    2 Oct2 October 06:43

    My new card year has just started in September. Unfortunately there have been a few transactions if not I could cancel and get back the £99 right?

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