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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Category

IHG Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

BJ says:

1 Oct1 October 15:23

I received a letter confirming my free card is being closed. It is not currently linked to my Curve card and to the best of my recollection it never has been.
Rachel Robinson says:

1 Oct1 October 15:23

Did anyone just get this from creation: IMPORTANT – Changes to the way you can pay your IHG Rewards Club Premium Credit Card credit card?
- Craig says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:25
  
  +1
  - Rachel Robinson says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 15:27
    
    Did you also get the letter?
    - Craig says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 15:33
      
      Don’t know, not at home, enjoying the sun in Tenerife.
- Anna says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:34
  
  Pay it for the next 2 months, presumably?
Linus says:

1 Oct1 October 15:25

I received an letter with a new black card, but the card number is the same old black card. don’t know why?
- FFoxSake says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:51
  
  new expiry date I expect
  - LINUS says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 22:33
    
    I just replaced the new card in February of this year until February 2024. The content of the new card says that you will get 20000 IHG Rrwards if you spend 200 pounds within 3 months after opening the card. It looks like a re-applied card, but it is exactly the same as my old card number.
Ja says:

1 Oct1 October 15:26

The funny thing is I had a letter about a month ago saying how well I had used my account and increased my credit limit and now they are closing it. Yes I did buy some NS&I about £700 and not since about January. And that was split between two cards.
Maciek says:

1 Oct1 October 15:34

DSAR sent. I’ll make them work hard in the last 60 days.
- Anna says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:36
  
  What is that? I have sent them email saying I expect my free night and pro rate refund, we’ll see what the response is.
  - EwanG says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 15:40
    
    Subject access request. Gets all the personal data they hold on Maciek!
- Craig says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:40
  
  Did you send that by email or recorded delivery?
  - stevenhp1987 says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 15:43
    
    https://www.creation.co.uk/data-subject-rights-request/
    
    You can request it via email.
    - Maciek says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 15:58
      
      Oh, blast! I’ve messaged them using the shitty messaging system. I’ll wait a couple days for response and shoot an email to DSARRequests@Creation.co.uk
      - Crafty says:
        
        1 Oct1 October 18:12
        
        Are you trying to gain anything meaningful from this, or just annoy them?
      - RTS says:
        
        1 Oct1 October 18:30
        
        i suspect the latter.. lol
RichardH says:

1 Oct1 October 15:36

I used the black card via Curve very frequently, but for low value day-to-day transactions while it was allowed. I’ve checked with Creation customer services they have confirmed that my account is unaffected by their decision and will not be closed.

So it seems it’s not a blanket decision if you’ve used Curve?
- BrianS says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:39
  
  Something more at play here for sure.
  - JDB says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 15:41
    
    Yes! That is self-evident; there are clearly various behaviours they don’t like.
- jil says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:42
  
  had a call with Creation 1 hour ago, the agent sounds like UK based, had no idea about this Curve thing or any account closure
  - Alan says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 19:26
    
    They better learn about it pretty soon given the number of phonecalls they’ll be receiving!
- Rachel Robinson says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:44
  
  I was told mine not closed too. And have used with Curve and for NS&I.
- meta says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:54
  
  Are you sure? The agents usually don’t know what they are talking about and will make anything up to get you off the phone. I wouldn’t be surprised they’re closing accounts in batches.
  - Rachel Robinson says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 16:02
    
    Am I sure that’s what they told me? Yes thanks. Whether it turns out to be correct in the fullness of time is another matter.
- John says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 16:24
  
  I haven’t got the letter, post has been reliable for the past few months.
  
  I used it with Curve but no MS (except by a very very loose definition – I bought stuff on ebay that I resold for cash).
Colin JE says:

1 Oct1 October 15:38

I got the letter too. Have already qualified for the free night but my anniversary is 24 January, so that’s two months refund due of the annual fee plus a free night certificate valued at, oh, about £400. I hope that everyone who stands to lose out will go as far as the ombudsman to get compensation.
I also hope that IHG finds a decent card issuer to move to. It seems to be getting harder to get hotel points and status in the UK with credit spending and part of my loyalty to IHG was based on the ability to get points and free nights.
john browell says:

1 Oct1 October 15:51

I had the letter today. Used to use my IHG as primary spending card, then linked it to curve. I had used it previously to pay off Amex card balances, until Curve brought in the fronted fee. Maybe it’s that behaviour they don’t like.
Luckily we applied earlier this week for the Virgin Premium Mastercard to collect different loyalty points, so we can use that with Curve hopefully.
- Colin JE says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:57
  
  Good call John
  One wonders what hardship this might create for some people who only had one credit card with IHG, maybe had a balance on it, and have been struggling during lockdown? Their chances could be significantly impaired of getting another card to which to transfer their balance .
  - FFoxSake says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 16:06
    
    You can bet your bottom IHG point that anyone who is rolling a balance over from month-to-month and paying interest to Creation isn’t being terminated…
    - jil says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 21:36
      
      I doubt people rolling over balance are using this card, there are plenty of 0% offer out there for this