Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Creation offers to settle with HfP readers over forced IHG One Rewards credit card closures

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

IHG One Rewards used to market two excellent UK credit cards. They were arguably the best Visa or Mastercard options on the market. Whilst closed to new applicants some time ago, some readers still hold them today.

IHG had put together a smart range of benefits which both encouraged people to get the card and to use it.

We’ll get to why it all went pear-shaped in a minute, but to recap:

Creation settles with HfP readers over forced IHG One Rewards credit card closures
  • the free IHG One Rewards card was decent. You earned 1 IHG One Rewards points per £1 spent (2 points per £1 for FX spend and at IHG hotels) and you received Gold status in what was at that time IHG Rewards Club. The points counted towards elite status too.
  • the £99 per year Premium card was excellent. As well as earning 2 IHG One Rewards points per £1 (4 points per £1 for FX spend and at IHG hotels) – which also counted towards elite status – you received Platinum status in IHG Rewards Club. When you spent £10,000 per year on the card, you received a voucher for a free night redemption.

Whilst this was not officially part of the benefits package, the cards had two other quirks:

  • you could pay off your monthly bill with another credit card, so you earned points twice
  • the free night vouchers, at least towards the end, were not coded properly and could be redeemed for pretty much anything in the Mr & Mrs Smith collection – some HfP readers stayed in £1,000+ top suites at the Cliveden country house hotel in Berkshire, for example

Then, in late 2021, Creation Financial Services – issuer of the card – shut down a large percentage of accounts with minimal notice. One call centre agent said that 1,800 accounts were closed.

Why did Creation close down card accounts?

It was never made explicitly clear, and of course Creation has the right to withdraw credit from anyone it wants at any time without giving a reason.

It seemed that the common factor was that cardholders had been linking their IHG credit cards to a Curve Card.

Curve Card is a debit card which recharges your transactions to a linked Visa or Mastercard credit card. This meant that you could make transactions which were only possible with a debit card – such as paying HMRC, buying Premium Bonds, putting money into Hargreaves Lansdown etc – and they would be recharged to your IHG credit card.

Importantly, these transactions would earn points and count towards your free night voucher.

Another popular use of Curve was for card spending abroad. Curve did not charge FX fees, so you could make a transaction with Curve in a foreign currency which was recharged to your IHG credit card whilst avoiding the fee.

A third use of Curve was to gain access to Apple Wallet. Creation cards did not work with Apple Wallet but Curve cards did.

(The Curve Card website is here if you want to learn more. I strongly recommend reading the Curve threads in the ‘Other payment cards’ part of our forum first.)

Creation settles with HfP readers over forced IHG One Rewards credit card closures

What happened when accounts were closed?

This is where Creation made a mistake, arguably.

When cards were closed, very little notice was given. Cardholders were not even awarded points for their most recent spending.

More importantly, holders of the Premium credit card did not receive their free night voucher for the year. It was a feature of the IHG credit card that, irrespective of how quickly the cardholder spent £10,000, the voucher did not appear until the end of their membership year.

What happened next?

Many HfP readers raised complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service, using our forum to share their knowledge. I know that some readers also launched legal action against Creation, with many successful in getting the value of a free night in a five star hotel.

The Financial Ombudsman Service eventually decided to pursue a single settlement with Creation.

This is the email that was received yesterday by people who had lodged a complaint:

Thank you for your patience while we’ve been progressing your complaint. As you’re aware we’ve been having regular discussions with Creation Financial Services Limited (Creation) to ensure an outcome that is fair and reasonable in the circumstances

Throughout these conversations, Creation have provided additional information and it’s been important to take this into account for the individual circumstances of each case. As a result of our conversations with Creation, we’re pleased to let you know that Creation have made an offer to resolve your complaint.

The offer Creation have made will depend on the type of account you held with them. I’ve explained more details below.

The closure of credit card accounts with Creation affected two of their credit card products which provided associated benefits.

  • IHG Rewards Club Premium Credit Card – customers were able to earn IHG Rewards Club points, and Anniversary Night Vouchers for an annual account fee
  • IHG Rewards Club Credit Card – customers were able to earn IHG Rewards Club points

For any customers who held an IHG Rewards Club Premium Credit Card, Creation have offered to

  • refund the unused proportion of the account fee on a pro-rata basis,
  • transfer the outstanding IHG Rewards Club points to their IHG account, and
  • grant Anniversary Night Vouchers for eligible customers.

For any customer who held an IHG Rewards Club Credit Card, Creation have offered to

  • transfer the outstanding IHG Rewards Club points to their IHG account.

I would be grateful if you could let us know whether you accept the offer from Creation in full and final settlement of your complaint by 31 March 2023.

If we don’t hear from you by then, we will assume your acceptance of this offer, and ask Creation to action the settlement and close your complaint.

If you would like to accept Creation Financial Services Limited’s offer, please let me know by 31 March 2023 and I’ll arrange for Creation Financial Services Limited to get in touch with you.

If you are not happy with the offer, please let me know why by 31 March 2023 and we’ll continue to investigate.

Creation settles with HfP readers over forced IHG One Rewards credit card closures

There are two obvious questions here ….

The first is over the annual free night voucher.

It isn’t clear if anyone who had not hit £10,000 of annual spend, but would have done so if their account was not closed, will receive their voucher. If Creation was refunding the entire annual fee for these people it could arguably get away with not awarding a voucher. Since it is only refunding the annual fee pro-rata, I think that anyone who was on course (pro-rata) to earn the free night voucher should receive one.

The second is what happens if you were not part of the FOS action.

The email is vague. It implies that this offer is being made to all cardholders, but I suspect that FOS means that it is being made available to all cardholders who made a complaint.

What should you do if your IHG credit card was closed down and you did not make a complaint to FOS?

You may want to wait to see if Creation gets in touch with you to offer you the same settlement that FOS has agreed for those who raised a complaint.

Your other option is to raise a complaint now with the Financial Ombudsman Service and say that you wish to be opted in to the settlement agreed between Creation and FOS. This was not a ‘group action’ to the extent that there was any sort of cut-off date.

Unless there is a limit to how long you can wait before making a complaint to FOS, I don’t see why any new complaint made now would not have the same outcome.

Conclusion

This has been a rather pitiful process. Whilst Creation has the right to give out credit to whoever it chooses, and to withdraw that credit if it wishes, the refusal to:

  • transfer over outstanding points
  • refund the unused portion of the annual card fee
  • award free night vouchers to people who had already hit the £10,000 spend target

…. was simply illogical and bound to end as it has now ended. A lot of time and effort has been wasted – Creation even sent legal representation to every court case I know about to defend itself, instead of settling.

The sums of money involved are peanuts at the end of the day, especially for a business (BNP Paribas) that has seen its market value drop by €17 billion in the last month.

Whilst readers will now get what they were due, there is nothing in these proposals which adds anything for the 18 months of inconvenience and delay.

IHG One Rewards update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

IHG One Rewards

Comments (242)

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

  • wideboys182 says:
    18 Mar18 March 10:47

    To be fair that’s a pretty poor settlement. I have not even received anything from the ombudsman so what does that mean for me?

    I feel Creation are getting off lightly here as if this had gone through courts pretty sure they breached their own terms and conditions in one way or another.

    Pretty sure IHG also has seen a dip in hotel activity because of this.

    • JDB says:
      18 Mar18 March 11:02

      What better settlement would you have expected to receive going to court?

      • TGLoyalty says:
        18 Mar18 March 11:04

        Tbf 2 years ago you were telling anyone that would listen that FOS will get you nothing and creation are completely within their rights…

        • JDB says:
          18 Mar18 March 11:23

          @TGLoyalty what I actually said is that in some circumstances, notably on the anniversary issue they have an arguable case. You will I’m sure have read recent reports of one person’s court case where they settled but clearly some arguments must have resonated with the judge or if it were as clear cut as you and others have suggested he would have decided very quickly.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            18 Mar18 March 12:07

            I feel like adding some is a revision of history. But I’m not going to trawl through 100’s of pages of past comments.

            But either way nothing is ludicrously generous in this settlement offer and it’s the bare minimum that was due to the vast majority of cardholders.

      • Lady London says:
        18 Mar18 March 12:29

        Rob seems to have had readers contacting him directly informing him they’ve won at MCOL against Creation.

        It might have been encouraging if some of them had posted their successes on the forum. We knew we were right, and responded to correctly by anyone receiving an offer, we are in reach of consummating the victory. But it’s been a hard slog.

        • Rob says:
          18 Mar18 March 12:43

          That would have broken the NDA agreements that were signed.

          • Lady London says:
            18 Mar18 March 12:46

            I do hope the readers concerned took an at least 30% uplift on what was due to them, plus all MCOL costs, if they signed an NDA as part of the settlement. Silence has to be paid for.

            How many such wins have you heard about Rob?

          • Rob says:
            18 Mar18 March 13:33

            I’ve had full court docs on two. I know others have gone that route but not seen all the info.

          • meta says:
            18 Mar18 March 13:27

            Stating you signed an NDA is not breaking an NDA agreement. You can discuss the existence of it or that it was signed when settling, just not the actual contents.

          • will says:
            19 Mar19 March 11:24

            The fact that a problem with consumer product can be settled with NDA is a regulatory issue in itself. Surely the only reason to have an NDA signed with respect to a consumer credit card is to discourage more consumers to exercise their rights.

            Between the energy companies going out of business (pre Ukraine war) and this curve/NSI/credit card episode I think there are some huge questions about the competency of regulators and compliance in the UK.

            Who knows, maybe the bond market collapsing will also raise a few eyebrows too when people realise their fund managers get to be retired insanely wealthy after putting their pensions into Covid issue government bonds.

        • JDB says:
          18 Mar18 March 12:49

          @Lady London – per @Rob’s post re NDAs these were settlements, not MCOL wins; quite a big difference. If the cases were so clear cut they would have got a quick ex tempore judgment. The exhortation to settle by the judge in the reported cases suggests that both parties might have been unhappy with a decision.

    • Matarredonda says:
      18 Mar18 March 18:17

      Not in my experience. 1800 cards is hardly earth shattering in comparison to the number of rooms.and therefore people staying.

  • Mike says:
    18 Mar18 March 11:04

    After reading head for points, I’ve determined that I’m going to reject the offer.

    The offer isn’t specific to my complaint or my circumstance. Given that creation have previously acted in bad faith, it’s reasonable to expect that they will use opaque eligibility criteria and rationale to weasel out of paying what most people think they are eligible for.

    For example, to be eligible for the free night voucher you need to spend £10k. The voucher is then awarded the following card year

    Creation could argue that spending £10k alone isn’t enough and the card being closed before the anniversary year doesn’t trigger the voucher.

    • Rob says:
      18 Mar18 March 11:14

      The email specifically says you get the voucher!

      • Anna says:
        18 Mar18 March 11:51

        No, it says if you’re eligible. Which they seem to be leaving up to Creation to decide!

        • Rui N. says:
          18 Mar18 March 12:18

          It is upon to Creation. On the forum people already received responses from the FOS saying so, and that if people are unhappy after that they can make another complaint.

          • Lady London says:
            18 Mar18 March 12:33

            Yeah…and do it all again with the stress of dealing with Creation. And waiting a totally unacceptable time for the FOS to provide a solution that’s only part baked. Yeah.

            Do yourself a favour and respond to any offer from Creation making all the positive noises you like but insisting on having all the specific numbers of exactly what you will receive before accepting.

        • Alan says:
          19 Mar19 March 09:49

          Exactly, I’d be very wary given how they’ve defined eligible in court cases.

      • Mike says:
        18 Mar18 March 12:37

        Sorry Rob, I know this is your site, but I have to disagree. The wording of the offer is the same for everyone, so it’s generic. That’s the opposite of specific.

        As an ex-IHG card holder, I think Creation are a poorly managed company. Until today I had no idea that people felt the same about the management of their older cards.

        I think it’s a reasonable conclusion that Creation will take an acceptance and then try to squirm their way out

        • JDB says:
          18 Mar18 March 14:13

          @Mike I think you are cutting off your nose to spite your face here. Yes, of course it’s a generic offer, but it’s entirely up to you how to accept it. You can add the specifics of what you are owed in points, pounds and voucher and say you accept only on that basis while keeping your FOS case open. Of course it’s your prerogative to refuse/ignore the offer but where does that really get you?

          • meta says:
            18 Mar18 March 14:31

            I think the problem with the vouchers, is that they have 1-year validity. By dragging, Creation can now say we will issue a voucher to eligible customers. Then issue one with original expiry meaning worthless. This is what I would be seeking clarification on if I was in that position.

  • Bob Smith says:
    18 Mar18 March 11:05

    I’m in the UK and have had the premium black card for a while. My IHG account is currently over 600000 points, the vast majority being spend on the card and a useful bonus in retirement. Should I be worried that these could be snatched away? Secondly, this month I have racked up 60000 in the creation account by buying in chunks a car. Should I be worried that these might not find their way into my IHG account now?

    Any good advice on which hotel benefit card to start looking at if I need to leave Creation? Thanks

    • Rob says:
      18 Mar18 March 11:12

      No, you’re fine. Don’t worry.

      Hotel card options are slim now. You’re looking at the Marriott Amex or a Virgin Mastercard, moving Virgin points to Hilton (2:3) or IHG (1:1):

    • Rui N. says:
      18 Mar18 March 12:20

      For now, no need to worry. But IHG is known to close accounts of people with >1 million points without justification or any way to ask why that happened.
      But that has nothing to do with Creation.

  • JDB says:
    18 Mar18 March 11:06

    I’m not sure why so many people say they aren’t going to accept the offer simply because it’s a general one. It is possible to specify in your acceptance exactly what you expect in £/points/voucher and that on the basis it is delivered by x date, the offer is accepted. Ask the FOS to put your case on hold until you confirm all settled. If you want to hold out for some small inconvenience payment and wait weeks, that’s potentially an option but is it worth it?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      18 Mar18 March 11:47

      Because they’ve made a sizeable investment in time and effort to get the minimum they were due and no acceptance of the waste of their time

      Spending hours of your time and effort on filing claims wrtitjng emails etc isn’t free.

      Others will of done the bare minimum so will happily settle.

    • Harrier25 says:
      18 Mar18 March 13:32

      I think people are annoyed that it’s a generic decision for all card holders and seeing ex cardholders, like me, who have sat in the wings patiently waiting for the outcome and then pouncing as soon as a decision is made. Fair enough because that would probably irritate me too if I’d put a lot of time and work into it.

  • Mark says:
    18 Mar18 March 11:18

    and just think, EVERY FO complaint will cost them £670

    • Cranzle says:
      18 Mar18 March 11:25

      Apparently not. They can be grouped together as a single issue (I think)

    • Lady London says:
      18 Mar18 March 12:25

      more now.
      I think the cost per FOS complaint in excess of 3 per year is now at least £750. It might have gone up further this year.

      Firms who have a lot of complaints can get some sort of season ticket for the FOS. But I doubt if in their arrogant treatment of customers, Creation would have thought to arrange this.

  • Swifty says:
    18 Mar18 March 12:30

    Shame I never got into the manufactured spending to earn the free voucher, and also rinse them on a palpable error. Me snooze me lose eh?

  • Michael says:
    18 Mar18 March 12:49

    Whilst my account was never closed, I had to raise a FOS complaint against Creation because they failed to issue my free night voucher for over 2 years after it was due! Every time I contacted Creation I was told it should be issued soon but they didn’t know when, but after 2 years I had enough. Thanks to the FOS forcing Creation to abide by their own terms, the voucher has finally been issued.

    However now reading how Creation has settled these complaints and how they chose to send legal representation to every court case to defend itself makes me so angry, how they’ve acted is quite appalling.

    Surely a company acting like this really should suffer harsher penalities!?
    A huge financial penalty would definitely send the right message to Creation’s owners BNP Paribas.

  • Aston100 says:
    18 Mar18 March 12:51

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!