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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.

  • Mick S says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:36

    What are people’s opinions here in the following situation.
    IHG card closes on 3rd/4th Dec. November statement is produced on or around the 25th. Any points earned between the November statement and the card closure…..down a black hole?

  • iamfugly says:
    9 Oct9 October 11:45

    Hi All,
    I have not kept up to news with curve (I have not used it for at least the last 18 months), are there any other cards I need to watch out for using curve with which might draw fees or the wrath of the card company like creation?
    I was previously using it with the JLP and HSBC Premier World Elite card. Hopefully these are still safe to link?

  • Chris says:
    9 Oct9 October 20:06

    I still haven’t received any letter about cancellation despite having used my IHG Black with Curve for Google Pay and Garmin Pay. I’ve never used it for any cash withdrawals or MS. A friend is in the exact same situation, no letter.

  • Dougie Forde says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:25

    I have still to receive a letter but I had an email from Creation on Friday offering a Balance Transfer for a year. Why would they do that if the cards are going? Seems strange.

  • Johnny5a says:
    11 Oct11 October 14:11

    I just phoned up because my online account I was locked out, I also asked the monotoned person, would I get my free night voucher – she said they’re not honouring the voucher.

    • Andy says:
      11 Oct11 October 16:21

      I’m really curious about them not honouring the voucher. I understand that they don’t have to explain why they’re closing my account, but surely they have to explain why they aren’t honouring the incentive that they used to sell the product?

  • Martin Robertson says:
    12 Oct12 October 11:45

    I can see a few comments from people in the same position as me – used with curve but not received a letter.
    I called them and my card is not being cancelled. I’d suggest the headline is incorrect as not all cards are being cancelled.

    As background I only used this card through curve for the entire time I’ve had it, but only for spending where AMEX wasn’t accepted. When they sent the texts the other week I had to call and request a pin number!

    • lostantipod says:
      12 Oct12 October 18:06

      Martin, this is exactly how I used the card, yet mine is being cancelled.
      I have an emerging theory on this. Because of covid, I had to cancel a trip to Australia and around £2400 was refunded to my curve card. Curve couldnt match the refund to the original transaction, so i suddenly had a healthy curve points balance. When i contacted them, I’m pretty sure they paid the money straight to my bank account. Which, through no fault of mine, would not cause a reduction to the points and spending progress on my IHG credit card account. Have IHG felt burned here somehow and targeted curve users where this has happened ?

      • QFFlyer says:
        13 Oct13 October 14:04

        No, Creation (nothing to do with IHG) haven’t lost out on anything here – they’ve still had their interchange fee from Curve. It’s actually Curve who’ve lost out in that scenario.

        • QFFlyer says:
          13 Oct13 October 14:06

          By “Creation haven’t lost out”, I mean they’ve not lost out any more than they would anyway, given that they almost definitely lose money on every transaction (on the black card) given the interchange cap of 0.3% vs cost of purchasing 2 points per £1 from IHG.

          • Charlie says:
            16 Oct16 October 10:24

            The reality I think is that these companies have a hard time building accurate lists of customers, especially when filtering for specific transaction types, so I’m not surprised to see outliers, but that’s what they are.

  • Steve says:
    16 Oct16 October 10:29

    Is anyone else unable to access “transactions” on their IHG Creation cards online? I’m getting the “revolving wheel” but everything else ( such as payments etc ) is working OK. My other non-IHG Creation cards are OK.

  • Tim W. says:
    20 Oct20 October 15:36

    I have had written confirmation (email) that they will not be refunding any part of the annual fee. They didn’t mention the free night voucher, as I didn’t ask. In any case, I have raised a formal complaint about this. It certainly is not treating customers fairly!

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

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