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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.

  • Anna says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:18

    I think Creation has seriously misjudged HFPers if they think they can withhold fee refunds without a fight!

  • Therooster says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:19

    Does anyone know how to see when the annual fee is due without reading every statement?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:24

      It says when you need to spend 10k by on the counter and it’s usually the statement after that.

      • Therooster says:
        1 Oct1 October 13:28

        Thanks TG,
        I checked the counter and it says spend -29K by this year!
        No dates in there

    • Richard says:
      1 Oct1 October 15:46

      Around the date the free night voucher appeared on your IHG account

    • Char Char says:
      2 Oct2 October 01:38

      Well the statement on the website will say annual statement instead of the normal statement

  • BrianS says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:20

    Surely they will be refunding fee? My wife’s card just renewed this month.

    • Anna says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:22

      According to the article, no. That could be misinformation from Creation CS, though, as it looks as thought they have also been caught on the hop by this.

    • ChrisHz says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:30

      I phoned and asked them this and they said that I can raise a complaint if I don’t like the fact that I’m getting part of a years use and a full years charge. I will be complaining!
      I seem to recall Barclays trying to not refund the fee when they closed their IHG card?
      I guess it’s their decision who they want to do business with, I’ve not got a problem with that but to not refund the fee is theft in my opinion.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        1 Oct1 October 13:39

        Reminds me of the refund / cheque scam suggested in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 😁

        • QFFlyer says:
          1 Oct1 October 13:43

          Hahaha 🤣 I’ll still cash it, no embarrassment when you use cheque imaging through your phone to pay it in

        • Graham Walsh says:
          1 Oct1 October 15:00

          Love that scene 🙂

  • Maciek says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:29

    No refund is a load of BS and will be easily contested with FOS. Otherwise what’s stopping them from giving new applicants 60 days notice the day after they were approved, pocket the fee and move on?

  • Harley says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:37

    What happens with the 0.5% credit back offer over the summer which they have not paid yet. Surely they cant wriggle out of that

  • Olly says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:38

    I am one of the 18k who received my letter this morning and over the past week have being to and frowing over an initial email I received from Curve last week saying that I was being investigated for money recycling and my account was to be closed. I used it for two purchases with NS&I and no withdrawls so challenged them. I got an apology saying it was sent to me in error and to disregard it. The next day another rep emailed stating my account showed signs of recycling in relating to NS&I and I needed to send all credit card and bank statements assocoiated with Curve or my account would be closed. I sent my NS&I account statement proving my innocence and asked for an apology for the accusation but did not get one, just a response that my account would be continued to be monitored. For the moment I appear to still have the Curve card but losing the Creation I use with it.

    What are people’s ideas on how are we going to earn points for our IHG accounts now then? Will this affect IHG Rewards status/ Rewards certificates etc?

    • Olly says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:44

      Where do I look to find out when they took the last £99 for the black card please folks to save me having to trawl my statements? I can’t seem to see iit anywhere.

      • Richard says:
        1 Oct1 October 15:48

        Look at your IHG account – free night appears at the credit card anniversary

      • Char Char says:
        2 Oct2 October 01:42

        Under statements instead of Monthly it says Annual

    • Blenz101 says:
      1 Oct1 October 13:56

      You can earn points by staying at hotels?

      I can kinda see why some feel hard done by if they never used NS&I. But in your case you when you used Curve and a credit card to load a savings account you have rightly been closed.

      NS&I says on the very page you top up that you must use a UK debit card. You snuck around the restriction by using Curve and effectively withdrew cash on a credit card. The underlying card issuer has rightly detected you have breached its terms and no longer wants you as a customer.

      It doesn’t matter if you weren’t recycling the money. You still broke the rules.

      I’m just as happy as the next HFP reader to game the system and have saved thousands from doing so. But you have to accept if you play the system eventually someone will call time. Getting a credit card company to apologise is just silly.

      • stevenhp1987 says:
        1 Oct1 October 14:54

        Which term did people violate in this instance?

        I see nothing in the CCA that prohibits cash-like transactions. Indeed the CCA states cash-like transactions can be made on this account?

        The fact they didn’t charge for it isn’t really the customers problem?

        • patrick C says:
          2 Oct2 October 09:29

          Correct. Also the legal basis for being against cash recycling is really dodgy as well as it clashes with your asic right to allocate your portfolio as you see fit.
          Same as if you deposit and withdraw from a current account every day if you want…

  • J says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:42

    The big question now: Where did I put those Horizon cards?…

  • BuildBackBetter says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:46

    Next step… cancel the cards and re-apply in 3 months?

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