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.

  • KBuffett says:
    3 Oct3 October 07:54

    I have Curve Legacy Black. The insurance actually looks quite decent considering I have no ongoing costs and I also get 3% back at Argos, Boots, Goldsmiths amongst others.

    • Youllnever says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:15

      The legacy black doesn’t have insurance – that’s only applicable to the subscription black tier.

      • KBuffett says:
        3 Oct3 October 09:30

        It’s showing in my app as applicable, under the account section. Even has a policy number etc.

        • Youllnever says:
          3 Oct3 October 10:10

          That’s because all legacy black users had a 3 months trial years ago where they could test the new subscription black tier which included the insurance coverage, after that 3 months trial, the insurance coverage would have ended and you were automatically dropped back to the legacy trial unless you opted to move to the subscription black.

          The documents there are only there for if you’ve made any claims during that trial period (which I did incidentally).

          If you need insurance, you need to get it elsewhere – don’t incorrectly believe you have it with Curve!

          • KBuffett says:
            3 Oct3 October 11:07

            Thanks, good to know. Luckily, I don’t really trust Curve and the likes.

        • Harrier25 says:
          3 Oct3 October 11:10

          I’m Curve Black Legacy too and the main valued benefit to me is the unlimited FX which isn’t available to free blue card holders. I can confirm though that the insurance benefits are not available unless you are a subscriber.

    • Alex says:
      3 Oct3 October 11:25

      So glad I kept the black legacy too, and on top I’m a investor black legacy. Still the best deal.

      • Harrier25 says:
        3 Oct3 October 12:00

        Without a doubt, Alex. Anyone would be mad to upgrade from Black Legacy in my opinion.

        • Hugo says:
          3 Oct3 October 13:56

          The insurance was offered to some of us for free if we referred a few friends

          • Youllnever says:
            3 Oct3 October 14:13

            Yeah, but that isn’t part of the black legacy card benefit – that was an upgrade offer to get the black subscription perpetually free.

  • Track says:
    3 Oct3 October 08:18

    The way how things go: Creation likely to have computed 2.95% on top of every Curve transaction used for FX and presented that number to Curve as “Loss of FX revenues”, probably in 10s of millions.

    Omitting the fact, that most of those transactions would never happen without Curve / would have never been charged to Creation cards (by FX-conscious Curve customers).

    There is a lot of talk about MS and nearly criminalising the efforts to earn points (eg, earn a gain from payment method). Yes it is very very easy to label things as misuse of account/wire fraud.

    An industry practice of 2.95% charge on “foreign transactions’ plus uncontrolled spread easily adding 2-3% on top of transaction.

    AMEX, Mastercard FX rates are set with the benefit of hindsight — end of the day, next day for the transaction date prior. They are set not in favour of purchasers of the originating country. Eg, AMEX would purchase a foreign currency cheaper on the day, and charge it higher to the customers later.

    This a legal sleight of hand that goes on and make a business of payment card issuers and payment system.

    • David says:
      3 Oct3 October 10:22

      Wire fraud is something entirely different.

      • Track says:
        3 Oct3 October 10:42

        May be. But given how US prosecutors throw in wire fraud charges on top any charges if the interstate electronic communication was used.

        The matter of payments to NS&I was raised. It is clear that NS&I consider themselves being defrauded because they have to pay higher debit card payment processing charges than anticipated. That is why taken measures are harsh, though not very sensible and suit Creation business purposes to get rid of customers who pay no interest and to potentially exit the market.

  • Anna says:
    3 Oct3 October 08:26

    If you ended up having to cancel an expensive but refundable hotel booking (because obviously the travel industry is still in turmoil) after December 3rd, would there be any attempt to claw back the points from IHG?

    • Harrier25 says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:33

      I can’t see how they can because once they’re in your IHG account Creation can’t see how your using your points.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      3 Oct3 October 08:52

      The bigger question is the delay on the refund. Won’t be surprised if Creation say they lost record of transactions. Keep copies of all statements and transactions.

    • David says:
      3 Oct3 October 11:42

      Is this for something you’ve already booked, or are you looking to game the system even more?

      • David says:
        3 Oct3 October 16:15

        Why do you have to be so unpleasant at times? It was a civil question.

  • Anna says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:15

    Out of interest I put both myself and my OH through the eligibility checker for Creation loans last night. Both deemed ineligible (we are not!), so I am wondering if Creation has tweaked its IT to weed out relevant current card customers!

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      3 Oct3 October 09:22

      Probably too solvent to be their target market.
      I got rejected when I applied for IHG card. Input a much lower income figure (hey, it’s true for the period of Covid shutdown in 2020 😀 ) and reapplied; promptly accepted.

      • WillPS says:
        3 Oct3 October 10:49

        Be careful fudging your income between applications. Very quick way to get flagged on National Hunter.

  • Filipino_Chino says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:38

    Sorry late to the party…

    So if i get a Curve card, i could pay off my mortage / HMRC etc and earn points?

    Just checking as I always used by Tesco account, but this is closing now…

    • Nigerian Prince says:
      3 Oct3 October 09:45

      yes, but you are late

    • SteveJ says:
      3 Oct3 October 11:26

      Not too late if a) willing to pay fronted / metal fees and b) willing to risk your relationship with your credit card provider who may decide to disown you like Creation seem to have.

  • Geoggy says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:39

    Got my letter.

    My annual fee was paid in January so not worth the admin for a pro rata claim but I guess I’m not getting the free night I would be due in January either? I would definitely pursue that.

    • Lula says:
      3 Oct3 October 09:56

      I’m also a January renewal. Reports seem to be that free nights will be deposited where they’ve been earned.

      • Geoggy says:
        3 Oct3 October 10:00

        Thank you

      • David says:
        3 Oct3 October 11:31

        Even after the closure date of cards? Do we know that with any certainty, or is that just for certs due before the December close date?

        • Lula says:
          3 Oct3 October 13:39

          I don’t think we know anything for certain. But they’d be on very shaky ground denying people the free night if they’ve met the conditions for it.

  • Ian M says:
    3 Oct3 October 09:46

    I’ve received the letter. I’ve never once done any MS spend on the card. A good time to wave goodbye to IHG all together. Terrible benefits for top tier status holders and now no UK credit card available for no good reason whatsoever.

  • GenX says:
    3 Oct3 October 10:00

    No letter as of today yet. I was using the Creation > Curve route for normal day-to-day spend. Had a few small cashpoint withdrawals a while back but that’s it. No MS as such. From reading the comments on here it seems that I should be put in the naughty corner as well. The time will tell.

    • Ian M says:
      3 Oct3 October 10:20

      The lesson to learn here is that in future rinse the MS, because it appears we get put on that naughty list anyway

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!