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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.

  • Will says:
    3 Oct3 October 11:27

    Sitting on the fence isn’t there a case here that the regulator isn’t on the ball in this market?

    Surely they should be taking a keen interest in ensuring companies are correctly categorising their transactions (eg cash forwarding) as well as spend far in excess of income, paying credit cards off with credit cards and indeed the whole concept of curve presenting a credit card as a debit card?

    The rules and regs around these things are pretty important because when things go wrong as we’ve learnt before it’s the taxpayer that ends up being given the bill.

    Its happened with OFGEM too recently, no ring fencing of advanced credit balances and no requirement to hedge despite giving customers fixed price fixed term agreements has led to a collapse of the energy companies which will cost an absolute fortune to us all.

    None of this really could not be foreseen if that’s your full time job surely.

    Avro energy particularly interesting, was net asset value -27m, holding 45 million advanced payments and you can track just under £6million paid to companies owned by the directors during this time, all available accounts also ore date covid so god knows what’s happened since then.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      4 Oct4 October 09:50

      This is a really good post and surprised it hasn’t received any comment – it does certainly seem to me (as a lay person) as though this is very reactive and a case of flying by the seats of their pants in what is supposedly a highly regulated industry

  • Patrick Cold says:
    3 Oct3 October 11:49

    One factor I don`t think has been mentioned is that my IHG black card spending tracker (to £10k) is set at £0 on the Creation website when I have, in fact, spend a few grand since my last free night voucher we awarded.

    • Anna says:
      3 Oct3 October 12:18

      Neither of ours have shown anything for some time, though it didn’t stop my OH’s free night certificate posting at the end of July. I have been wondering about that since Friday though!

    • Geoggy says:
      3 Oct3 October 13:15

      So I’ve no way of knowing where I’m up to? Is it on the app anywhere

      • mark2 says:
        3 Oct3 October 14:54

        go through the statements!

      • Graham Walsh says:
        3 Oct3 October 15:22

        Yes it’s on the app. Just checked mine. Need to put nearly 7k through to get the free night. If I did it, will they issue it?

  • iamfugly says:
    3 Oct3 October 12:14

    I am a bit late to the party. Am I right in assuming all letters have been issued already?
    I have not received a letter yet so I am guessing I have been excluded from the cull… for now?

    • Patrick Cold says:
      3 Oct3 October 12:32

      Not sure how we`d know that but can tell you that Che is having a busy weekend.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        3 Oct3 October 13:04

        You don’t want to hack off Revolut. Unless you are in no hurry to see your money again.

        I got shit down a couple of years ago, well before all this Bendie stuff. Wife got suspended – because of a £500 payment from Spain, for heavens sake – and had to provide about 50 pages of financial info on her and me and our businesses.

        This party is over. It is time to distance oneself from it for one’s long term good. You really, really don’t want a financial marker on your name!

        My Curve cash went to Amazon last night and the cards are being closed tomorrow.

        But there will be other opportunities!

    • WillPS says:
      3 Oct3 October 14:33

      Big confidence you have in Royal Mail, I see… even if these were sent 1st class in Thursday’s post RM tomorrow’s post would still be within their delivery estimate, and far longer is possible (even probable in some areas) at the moment.

  • Dougie Forde says:
    3 Oct3 October 13:13

    Feeling a bit dull here but what is meant by MS?

    I haven’t had a letter yet, only used Curve with my IHG Black to use Apple Pay. Have already spent the £10k, renewal due in November. Will be watching very carefully.

    Thanks in anticipation.

  • Harrier25 says:
    3 Oct3 October 14:19

    Plenty of time to feed the Argentine Marxist, Mr Guevara. We have until the 3rd December, no need to fill the pot in the first weekend. You still have to play fair not to attract too much attention from Che.

    • Anna says:
      3 Oct3 October 15:15

      Just plotting strategy. My free night triggers on the 23rd so I need to squeeze out another £10k between then and the end of November. We have his n hers things going with compadre Guevara so shouldn’t cause too many issues.

      • Harrier25 says:
        3 Oct3 October 15:29

        Lucky you! My next free night doesn’t trigger until March. 😔

  • M says:
    3 Oct3 October 14:46

    Eh, I think I will be left with my 10k IHG points I got from the free card welcome bonus. How many points do I need for a nice one night redemption in a European city (say Berlin, Rome, Madrid, etc.) in your experience?

  • Boi says:
    3 Oct3 October 15:44

    I am clearly too naughty…my free night was earned in august.

    I have already spent over 10K.

    I literally meet that requirement within a week every year. I thought that was a hfp thing?

    Surprised there’s people here chasing that.

  • Dave says:
    3 Oct3 October 16:50

    So my wife’s year end is 21st October. I guess they’ll take the £99 and cancel her card a few weeks later with no time to hit the £10kmspend!
    Is there any way of getting the free night for this year then cancelling before they charge the £99?

    • Anna says:
      3 Oct3 October 17:35

      Rob wrote an article about this a couple of years ago, I think it can be done as long as you don’t spend anything after the end of the card year.

    • SC says:
      3 Oct3 October 21:46

      My fee is due in November and customer services said they wouldn’t take it as they’ve given notice of the cancellation.

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