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Forums Payment cards Other payment cards Important changes to your IHG One Rewards Premium Credit Card – closing

  • aseftel 289 posts

    Certainly I can recall discussion of Creation’s approach to the closures in a couple of WhatsApp groups made up of current/former card types. @JDB is on the money about the lack of reputational consequences though. Expectations were already in the gutter so I can’t say anyone was particularly surprised. Worth bearing in mind of course that this is a matter of their reputation with their competitors – not necessarily their customers or regulators.

    BNP has been informally open to a disposal for as long as I can remember, but clearly a suitor has not been forthcoming.

    alig4th 322 posts

    The day before the email about closure we submitted to replace my wife’s additional card (the contactless wasn’t working).

    Card just arrived and it’s blue (not black) in a different style.

    Seems odd they’d go to the effort of redesigning a card they’re cancelling but, oh well…

    Harrier25 985 posts

    Makes you think that maybe IHG had a say in this closure decision?

    alig4th 322 posts

    Makes you think that maybe IHG had a say in this closure decision?

    A friend said the new colour is in line with the new IHG branding… Which is even weirder if IHG had a say in the colour change…

    Doesn’t matter, the card is still closing, just thought it was interesting

    Harrier25 985 posts

    Which is even weirder if IHG had a say in the colour change…

    I did suggest that IHG had a say in the closure, not colour!

    alig4th 322 posts

    Which is even weirder if IHG had a say in the colour change…

    I did suggest that IHG had a say in the closure, not colour!

    I know your said closure.

    What I mean is, if IHG were planning to end the relationship, why would they go the effort of requesting a colour change to match brand colours before scrapping the card?

    And if Creation were the ones planning to end the relationship, why bother paying to redesign a card that you’re scrapping (unless they had to do it if asked by IHG as part of the live contract)

    LD27 292 posts

    Well it seems IHG’s relationship with Creation has already ended! Or it might just be the usual monthly problems! I tried to renew my Ambassador membership online and IHG credit card was declined. Rang IHG and they could not process payment with IHG card either.

    Creation never fails to fail!

    Navara 31 posts

    I wonder if this means IHG will be looking (or may already have found?) a new UK credit card partner? 🤔

    If they had already found a new partner, usually one would expect that to be announced at the same time and accounts transferred to the new provider with new terms to give that new firm a starting customer base. Not impossible of course, but makes it less likely there’s an immediate replacement.

    What you are describing has literally never happened with an affinity arrangement ending in the UK, to my knowledge.

    None of the MBNA affinity cards transferred anywhere; even the Virgin Atlantic ones (the new Virgin Money ones had recently become available when MBNA pulled the plug).

    Didn’t happen with the IHG Barclaycard either, nor the JLP cards, nor the Post Office cards…

    The normal course of action is one or a mixture of:
    a) cards are replaced by a non-affinity product, e.g. Costco Amex replaced by Amex Plat Cashback
    b) end date is advised and after that cards are closed
    c) customers are pointed to new affinity card and asked to reapply

    I’m sure when The RBS Airmiles card ceased I was switched to NatWest then to the lloyds duo card

    QFFlyer 183 posts

    I’m sure when The RBS Airmiles card ceased I was switched to NatWest then to the lloyds duo card

    RBS to NatWest are under the same umbrella, so that’s feasible, you almost certainly wouldn’t have been switched automatically to Lloyds from NatWest when that changed – but I don’t know, I didn’t have the RBS/NatWest cards, only the Lloyds ones.

    However, different times, anyway – that was pre-interchange cap, when the swipe fees made it affordable to run rewards CCs.

    RussellH 160 posts

    On the card account page, it says to ring an 0121 number. When you ring it, an automated message tells you the number is invalid and you should check the Creation website for a better number.
    The contact numbers are not immediately visible and there seems to be attempts to get you to send emails or letters instead.

    I have no idea where on “the card account page” you find an 0121 number. If you click the “Contact us” link, there is only the same 0371 number as is on the back of the credit card.

    The credit card **does** also have an 0121 number for use when outwith the UK, in case phoning +44 371 does not work even though it should do.

    Oh, and the 0371 number on the contact us page is in bigger type, and bright orange, to make it stand out.

    Still no e-mails from Creation to either of us in this house either

    RussellH 160 posts

    This reply has been reported for inappropriate content.

    Mistake. Is there no way to get decent size buttons on the posts?
    As well as moving them somewhere more sensible, like at the BOTTOM of the post, PLEASE.

    ryaneberry 51 posts

    Why are you annoyed about an 0371 number? If it was 0871 then I would agree that it’s very poor.

    0371 will be charged as a national call – same as 01 and 02…

    It came in to replace 08xx and the only number that changed was the 8 to a 3

    On the card account page, it says to ring an 0121 number. When you ring it, an automated message tells you the number is invalid and you should check the Creation website for a better number.
    The contact numbers are not immediately visible and there seems to be attempts to get you to send emails or letters instead.

    I have no idea where on “the card account page” you find an 0121 number. If you click the “Contact us” link, there is only the same 0371 number as is on the back of the credit card.

    The credit card **does** also have an 0121 number for use when outwith the UK, in case phoning +44 371 does not work even though it should do.

    Oh, and the 0371 number on the contact us page is in bigger type, and bright orange, to make it stand out.

    Still no e-mails from Creation to either of us in this house either

    alig4th 322 posts

    Anyone else’s IHG cards getting declined everywhere?

    strickers 922 posts

    Anyone else’s IHG cards getting declined everywhere?

    Used mine in Tesco, the local pub and at a Holiday Inn in the last couple of days, no issues.

    Lady London 2,304 posts

    On the card account page, it says to ring an 0121 number. When you ring it, an automated message tells you the number is invalid and you should check the Creation website for a better number.
    The contact numbers are not immediately visible and there seems to be attempts to get you to send emails or letters instead.

    I have no idea where on “the card account page” you find an 0121 number. If you click the “Contact us” link, there is only the same 0371 number as is on the back of the credit card.

    The credit card **does** also have an 0121 number for use when outwith the UK, in case phoning +44 371 does not work even though it should do.

    Oh, and the 0371 number on the contact us page is in bigger type, and bright orange, to make it stand out.

    Still no e-mails from Creation to either of us in this house either

    @RussellH you can use the number provided for “from abroad” dial ins in the UK I think, if you put 141 in front of it, then dial it as you would a UK number

    RussellH 160 posts

    On the card account page, it says to ring an 0121 number. When you ring it, an automated message tells you the number is invalid and you should check the Creation website for a better number.
    The contact numbers are not immediately visible and there seems to be attempts to get you to send emails or letters instead.

    The above was not written by me. I was quoting the OP.

    I have no idea where on “the card account page” you find an 0121 number. If you click the “Contact us” link, there is only the same 0371 number as is on the back of the credit card.

    The credit card **does** also have an 0121 number for use when outwith the UK, in case phoning +44 371 does not work even though it should do.

    Oh, and the 0371 number on the contact us page is in bigger type, and bright orange, to make it stand out.

    Still no e-mails from Creation to either of us in this house either

    RussellH you can use the number provided for “from abroad” dial ins in the UK I think, if you put 141 in front of it, then dial it as you would a UK number

    I have no idea why someone thought that I had an issue with dialling 03xx phone numbers! I am very well aware of the charges for different types of phone number, both in the UK and elsewhere. And until we moved house, I was on an unusual legacy phone tarif that cherged me less for 03xx numbers than it did for 01xx and 02xx, so I was always happy to use them.

    My comment was to someone who said that they could not find a contact number fro Creation, and I was pointing out that if they had just clicked the contact us link on the Creation site, they would have had the correct number presented in very large characters.

    Putting ‘141’ in front of a phone number results in your own phone number not being displayed (CLI withheld in the jargon). It only works in the UK – though of course other countries have their own codes for this.
    I think that you are getting confused with +44 in front of the number, which is the GSM standard. It gets translated to 0044 in Europe, 01144 in North America etc.

    RussellH 160 posts

    Anyone else’s IHG cards getting declined everywhere?

    No. They just do not like being used contactless very often. Never have.

    Still no notifications about the cards closing here either.

    gt94sss2 14 posts

    Probably tempting fate but am I the only one who has not yet received notification that their IHG card is closing?

    I have the standard/non-Premium one.

    Go197 87 posts

    I too have not received notification of closure.

    I did, however, receive a brand new card today, in an attractive greyish-blue.

    Producing a new design and re-issuing cards while simultaneously closing accounts – but not telling everyone – sounds about right for Creation.

    HughM 84 posts

    Why are you annoyed about an 0371 number? If it was 0871 then I would agree that it’s very poor.

    0371 will be charged as a national call – same as 01 and 02…

    It came in to replace 08xx and the only number that changed was the 8 to a 3

    On the card account page, it says to ring an 0121 number. When you ring it, an automated message tells you the number is invalid and you should check the Creation website for a better number.
    The contact numbers are not immediately visible and there seems to be attempts to get you to send emails or letters instead.

    I have no idea where on “the card account page” you find an 0121 number. If you click the “Contact us” link, there is only the same 0371 number as is on the back of the credit card.

    The credit card **does** also have an 0121 number for use when outwith the UK, in case phoning +44 371 does not work even though it should do.

    Oh, and the 0371 number on the contact us page is in bigger type, and bright orange, to make it stand out.

    Still no e-mails from Creation to either of us in this house either

    This works for Creation: 0800 7835881

    Jumble Tales 5 posts

    Good morning all,
    Has anyone who has declined the replacement card offer had a reply / confirmation yet?
    I sent the required email on Monday 17th, received an automated response straight away but nothing further.

    Lady London 2,304 posts

    @RussellH 141 doesn’t just result in your number not being displayed at the other end. It used to stop blockage of your access to the ‘from another country’ contact number – as this embeds a local UK phone number you can see.

    Many companies’ phone systems were programmed to detect if you were dialling the number for people abroad to use, from a local UK number. Instead of a UK number that they might have an earning arrangement on eg to keep part of the phoneco ‘termination fee’ within the call charge. But often these numbers can’t be dialled from abroad hence you’ll often see a different normal looking number for those dialling from abroad.

    Concealing your number by dialling the code in front used to stop this blockage and the call would go through – whereas just dialling the number given for people dialling from abroad, even if using the +44, it wouldn’t go through if the receiving phone system was able to detect you were calling from the UK.

    RussellH 160 posts

    RussellH 141 doesn’t just result in your number not being displayed at the other end. It used to stop blockage of your access to the ‘from another country’ contact number – as this embeds a local UK phone number you can see.

    Many companies’ phone systems were programmed to detect if you were dialling the number for people abroad to use, from a local UK number. Instead of a UK number that they might have an earning arrangement on eg to keep part of the phoneco ‘termination fee’ within the call charge. But often these numbers can’t be dialled from abroad hence you’ll often see a different normal looking number for those dialling from abroad.

    Concealing your number by dialling the code in front used to stop this blockage and the call would go through – whereas just dialling the number given for people dialling from abroad, even if using the +44, it wouldn’t go through if the receiving phone system was able to detect you were calling from the UK.

    That may or may not have been the case in the past, but I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else, even though I have subscribed since the 1990s to a Usenet group where a number of phone no. geeks still hang out. In the past, a lot of useful tips for reducing my business phone costs over the years.

    But since the use of expensive phone numbers (ie 084x and 087x as well as 09xx) was banned for Customer Services numbers some years ago, there is now no termination fee sharing anyway. But yes, back in the late 1990s and early 200os I managed to collect the huge sum of about £40 in termination fee sharing.
    🙂

    RussellH 160 posts

    Probably tempting fate but am I the only one who has not yet received notification that their IHG card is closing?

    I have the standard/non-Premium one.

    I am in exactly the same situation. About 2 weeks ago my partner, who has a black IHG Creation card, got a huge pack from Creation, all printed on A3 paper, folded into a well filled C4 envelope, but I have officially heard nothing.

    If I have still heard nothing from them by 27 June, would I, I wonder, be able to claim anything from Creation for not giving me any written notice, let alone the two months notice specified in the Credit card agreement, which they have already failed to meet. My partner’s package included two copies of a credit card agreement, neither or which seems to mention IHG at all.

    I would guess that compensation could logically be restricted to the cash equivalent of any points not earned by using the card after 27 June, which is not really worth fighting for.

    NorthernLass 9,390 posts

    If they haven’t given you the required notice period, they would be in breach of their own Ts and Cs if they closed your account (unless they could provide some evidence of serious misuse by you). I don’t know if it would be possible to claim anything for the missed spending opportunity; the FOS cases detailed on the Creation bashing thread mainly deal with points and free night certificates which should have been awarded during the notice period but weren’t.
    I suppose the remedy would be to allow you two more months of card use, but if they are withdrawing the card altogether obviously that won’t be possible.
    Creation might get sanctioned for breaching its own Ts and Cs, but it’s not clear what would be offered to the customer.

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