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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.

  • LS says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    Well I’ve got bored, and put a FOI request in to NS&I to see what pressure they have been exerting on curve or creation on this subject.
    I shall of course keep people updated.

    • BP says:
      1 Oct1 October 14:01

      Ohh… good idea as they are a government organisation!

      • Blenz101 says:
        1 Oct1 October 14:09

        Almost any of the FOI exemptions will apply and prevent you getting a response.

        Given there are still plenty of cards and routes to pay into NS&I it seems rather silly to have bothered poking the beast. Anyway.. we all look forward to you being told ‘sensitive business information’ or similar means they won’t be responding.

        • Ls says:
          1 Oct1 October 16:02

          Well I also asked for the latest summary or plan given to the executive team regarding this, so if the communications are ‘commercially sensitive’ then this summary probably won’t be.

        • ThePenguin says:
          2 Oct2 October 15:02

          yes, we need to know all about HSBC

      • Super Secret Stuff says:
        1 Oct1 October 14:14

        Once they admit to it sue them for loss of earnings 🤣

        • Blenz101 says:
          1 Oct1 October 14:25

          Haha, exactly.

          Dear LS, yeah we have noticed it’s costing us a fortune in card processing fees with people paying in £1000’s often with commercial debit cards and then 7 days later withdrawing the lot only to top up again the next week. Seems to have been a link with points earning credit cards and something called ‘bendy’. We have had a word and told them to pack it in. What is it you wanted to know again?

          Love,
          NS&I

          • patrick C says:
            2 Oct2 October 09:38

            Dear NS&I,
            As such you excerted illegal pressure on a private company without proving anything illegal.
            Best
            The people

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    I love the tag on of the Virgin Credit card at the end of the article. Very much like David Brent when he tells staff there will be redundancies but he is going to be okay. He is then genuinely surprised that everyone else is still focusing on the bad news.

    • Chris says:
      1 Oct1 October 14:18

      “The bad news, some of you will be losing your jobs. The good news, I’ve been promoted.”

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:
        1 Oct1 October 19:06

        “But David, that’s just bad news and irrelevant news.”

        • Allthepieces says:
          1 Oct1 October 20:33

          That’s not a phrase though is it

          • Kevin D says:
            3 Oct3 October 23:47

            Come on Creation, before he bans you from manufactured spend.
            They are banned.
            Oh see, taking it out on pre-paid debit cards.
            Cos the NS&I regime don’t like it man.

  • Rob says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    What chances of reapplying for the white one in a few months and getting approved if you’ve just had one closed with this shenanigans?

  • Peter says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    Also got a cancellation letter today, I have only used it with curve a handful of times and the last times was pre-pandemic.
    Only use it to chase the free night. Shame but they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot here.

  • Voltron says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:58

    Any bets on how many comments this article will get?

  • Anna says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:59

    Could this actually be a ploy to get people off the paid card and onto the free one? I know they are cancelling free cards, but they could hardly not do this if they were being used with Curve like the paid one.

  • JanM says:
    1 Oct1 October 14:01

    Not sure if this was posted here already but Curve updated its terms of service this week to explicitly state that payments to NS&I are treated like those HMRC and others…

    • John says:
      1 Oct1 October 14:32

      With anything Curve you can be sure that 10 other people have already posted it unless you post as soon as the email pops up in your inbox

      • Alex Sm says:
        2 Oct2 October 08:23

        Surprisingly not in this case! I was also waiting for that but this is genuinely the first comment about this

  • Anna says:
    1 Oct1 October 14:01

    Also what will happen with IHG status given via both cards?

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

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