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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 (863)

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

  • 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.

  • LostAntipod says:
    3 Oct3 October 18:09

    I have international flight bookings over xmas , paid for on the soon to be cancelled IHG card, via curve. Also some cancellable hotel bookings, not yet paid. Can someone kindly clarify if 1. I am in for a world of pain if i cancel the refundable flights 2. The hotel bookings are now at risk?

    • Char Char says:
      3 Oct3 October 18:14

      Curve will likely try to refund back to the cards if they are refunded, if there is a later charge to the Curve cards then they would goto the selected card on Curve.

      You would then need to chase creation for the refunds to your bank or spend the balance before they close the account.

    • Anna says:
      3 Oct3 October 18:15

      Why would the hotel bookings be at risk? They will ask you which card you want to pay on at check in.
      When are you likely to cancel the flights? You will be due your money back but it might be slightly more complicated if you do it after December 3rd (though you may want to wait and keep the points generated).

      • Anna says:
        3 Oct3 October 18:17

        It might be worth checking if your refund would go to Curve cash in the event of your IHG card being no longer active!

        • Char Char says:
          3 Oct3 October 19:13

          They will only do Curve cash if they can’t match the refund to the original transaction afaik, not sure what happens if you delete the card though

          • Cloud says:
            3 Oct3 October 19:20

            On many occasions they refunded to curve cash noting they can’t match the transaction, which is easily proven to be due to laziness

          • Char Char says:
            3 Oct3 October 20:45

            On many occasion they haven’t even acknowledged the refunds

          • LostAntipod says:
            4 Oct4 October 11:39

            Yes it’s a transaction in DKK an an ex-euro J fare so the refund won’t match, should go to curve cash, then I contact curve to pay my bank. Happened to me last year with a covid cancellation.

      • LostAntipod says:
        4 Oct4 October 11:42

        I may end up cancelling after Dec 3. It’s £5k so a nice chunk of points. I think you’re right about the hotel though, but I figured I might as well ask while I’m here 🙂

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    3 Oct3 October 20:43

    Wrote to Curve to canccel my account. Said I felt they were potentially toxic to my other cards.

    Their reply:

    “Thanks for your feedback. I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this trouble and that you’d like to cancel your account.

    “Rest assured that we’re already in conversation with relevant parties to solve this issue and investigate when you’ll be able to use Creation payment cards again. We’ll keep you in the loop on any updates we’ll have regarding this situation, so watch out for any new messages from us.”

    Oh, and they cancelled the account.

    If it turns out in a few weeks that Creation are still going to be in the card business, I may then send this to them to show I am a “nice” guy!

    • Anna says:
      3 Oct3 October 20:46

      Seriously?!

    • Char Char says:
      3 Oct3 October 20:48

      One thing I hate is businesses that act like they have a lot of weight to through around when clearly they haven’t got anything at all.

    • Nigerian Prince says:
      3 Oct3 October 21:37

      Curve said the same thing about AMEX, yet 2 years later…

    • Youllnever says:
      3 Oct3 October 23:22

      Yeah, like others have mentioned, not sure why Curve thinks they have the clout to reverse Creation’s decision.

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