Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

Time to pick up 30,000 Virgin Points?

If you are now looking for a new Visa or Mastercard, don’t forget the excellent 30,000 Virgin Points bonus currently offered on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card which has a few days left to run. Our article is here and you can apply here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – May 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

IHG One Rewards

Comments (860)

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

  • Johnny5a says:
    2 Oct2 October 06:59

    Warning email? From who? HK? As I have to HK card

    • Jimbob says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:55

      Bendy I would have thought, HK tend to do money laundering checks in my experience

      • Jimbob says:
        2 Oct2 October 08:56

        I had a letter from HK asking to provide evidence of funds, then this was followed up by a phone call

  • Venturelog says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:02

    Will the card cancellation impact credit score?

    • DJ says:
      2 Oct2 October 07:24

      I highly doubt it.

    • vol says:
      2 Oct2 October 07:55

      It can do. Virgin cancelled a dormant credit card that I had and my credit score dipped. I was able to reinstate it on the basis it affected my credit score.

      • John says:
        2 Oct2 October 07:58

        The UK doesn’t have credit scores. Only random numbers that are a broad generalisation of whether a credit reference agency would give you a credit card if they issued credit cards.

        Every lender calculates an internal score which is a trade secret. Some of them do it using the CRA systems but those scores are still different from the ones publicly available

    • Char Char says:
      2 Oct2 October 10:30

      It will update your report whether that gives or takes away points is down to the company you apply to

  • Jonathan says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:22

    Back to the main principle of the card, how else can I earn IHG points now when not staying at a hotel?

  • Erik says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:22

    Very disappointed with my Curve Card Experience. They have the Worst Customer Service I’ve Experienced. Would not use Curve Again.

  • Matthew says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:34

    Had anyone had the free IHG card cancelled?

  • Billy says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:49

    Well, well, well…

  • Aaron C says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:50

    So can I still pay Ernie with Solihull via the Bendy route to Brighton?

  • vol says:
    2 Oct2 October 07:52

    When Amex had beef with Curve, it took it out on Curve, not its customers. If the credit card company didn’t shut down loopholes, or made no effort to inform customers it didn’t like the practice, and cardholders exploited it, it’s not the cardholder’s fault. They’re punishing card members for something that (I assume) they weren’t prohibited from doing.

    Amex seemed to get this and just broke off their relationship with Curve.

    Amateur hour from Creation, but maybe other credit card issuers are watching with intrigue to see how this all pans out

    • Paul pogba says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:05

      I blame NS&I, they seem to have incited this and they could have banned the curve BIN. Creation could have shut this down by imposing interest on the relevant MCCs. They all had less dramatic options.

      It’s hard to see IHG being able to launch a new card if Hilton have struggled. If they’re really interested in the UK market the best we can hope for is are transfer partnerships with Nectar, Tesco CC or Amex MR.

      • J says:
        2 Oct2 October 09:15

        My guess would be that NS&I are refusing to just take the loss, and Creation are looking to demonstrate they had no knowledge of what was going on and took decisive action as soon as they found out. So any legal culpability potentially shifts to Curve.

        • JPa says:
          2 Oct2 October 09:29

          Can’t see what the cost is is ns&i. They got the money in full and only paid debit card fees to curve. Curve are the ones that have to pay credit card fees. The main losers are probably creation who I assume have to more than 0.3p for the 2 ihg points.

    • Goonface says:
      2 Oct2 October 08:30

      It actually makes me want Curve to succeed even more and stick it to the bullies of the industry, clearly like Creation if they’re willing to use the customers as the pawn.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!