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.

Craig says:

1 Oct1 October 16:49

No letter for me, yet. No MS, no paying one CC from another but I have used it with Curve.
- John says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:17
  
  Ditto. No letter today, only really used the card for Apple Pay transactions. There was the occasional cash withdrawal but nothing too serious. I have two options:
  
  – I’m lucky and I keep my card
  – Royal Mail are slow at delivering my letter (sadly I think this is the most likely option) 🙁
  - Youllnever says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 17:29
    
    If you have ever used your card with Curve or even linked it, it’s almost certain that your letter is simply on its way.
- SammyJ says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 10:23
  
  Same here, not used it with curve for a few years and then only a couple of times for Costco back when they didn’t accept CCs. No letter yet but if they don’t close it, I will probably close it anyway as a point of principle.
Colin MacKinnon says:

1 Oct1 October 17:11

We have now decided to close our Curve card.

It is not an all-in-one card, since Creation/IHG dropped it.

And lots of others offer FX free deals.

In fact, it actually now looks quite toxic.

One of my customers the other day worked for a FinTech – they had spent years with a traditional bank and were wanted for their compliance experience.

But the attitude in fintechs is, we will get round to compliance once we get the business up and running!

Makes me now feel it best to keep clear of R and M and all these other new firms.
- John says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 18:15
  
  R and M take compliance rather seriously though – to the point of being overzealous
  - BP says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 18:46
    
    R had a huge amount of people leave as they didn’t want to be associated with the practises. May be better now.
    - CarpalTravel says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 19:41
      
      Not from what I have heard. A relative worked there and another FinTech before that and all the stories I heard absolutely back up Colins point.
jek says:

1 Oct1 October 17:13

The credit card application page for Creation is now offline.
- Froggee says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:27
  
  Hah! Possibly got in just in time.
Memesweeper says:

1 Oct1 October 17:28

Who regulates NS&I? The FCA. I think a complaint there is warranted. Applying pressure to others in the industry because they couldn’t control a few MSers on their own platform is a disgrace. The collateral damage to Curve , Creation and their customers is disproportionate.
- Memesweeper says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:33
  
  Thinking about it, of course, you have to complain to NS&I first, which I think I will, demanding recompense for the loss of benefits of my Creation card. My last complaint for the broken “back button” issue on their website was an easy £50.
  - JDB says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 18:12
    
    That seems like a non-starter since you weren’t supposed to use the Creation card at NS&I but used an intermediary card and you can hardly hold them responsible for the card you put behind Curve.
    - Memesweeper says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 18:34
      
      Plenty of people who were impacted never used NS&I at all. NS&Is behaviour has negatively impacted their customers (and others).
    - Harrier25 says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 19:04
      
      God JDB. You are a Financial Regulator encyclopaedia. So annoying! 😂
    - kitten says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 19:05
      
      Remember card companies can’t suddenly impose new conditions unilaterally. They are required to give notice. You’ll probably find that you’ve not been properly informed, with due notice, of changes concerning NS&I and possibly others.
      - JDB says:
        
        1 Oct1 October 19:11
        
        What new T&Cs are you saying haven’t been notified?
    - Char Char says:
      
      2 Oct2 October 09:37
      
      JDB obviously has either missed out or has some incentive for people to not get compensated
    - Char Char says:
      
      2 Oct2 October 09:39
      
      Wrong, you weren’t supposed to use credit cards correct, which nobody did, they used Curve who took the payment and they were free to block Curve.
- Harrier25 says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:38
  
  It’s the government’s savings bank so, I don’t know, but it may not be answerable to the FCA and maybe comes under the jurisdiction of the Bank of England instead.
  - Memesweeper says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 17:42
    
    They are also subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. I think the starter for ten is to ask under FOI what action they have taken with respect to users of the Curve card to deposit funds into their products.
    - Mattb says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 19:25
      
      Ultimately creation have decided to close these accounts and they are allowed to do so given the appropriate notice is given for whatever reason. NS&I are irrelevant here.
  - JDB says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 18:15
    
    NS&I is regulated by the FCA as far as consumers are concerned. Like all banks it is also regulated by the PRA/Bank of England for matters relating to its solvency.
    - Red Flyer says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 19:11
      
      Cant see what the issue and big fuss is – you can still deposit to NS&I if you want, albeit you have to use a debit card rather than a workaround that earned hotel points??!
Anna says:

1 Oct1 October 17:34

Is anyone going to take out a Creation loan then pay it off before December 3rd? 😂
- Harrier25 says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:40
  
  I assume your letter arrived in the end then Anna?
  - Anna says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 18:43
    
    3 of them!
  - Anna says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 18:44
    
    All 3 of them!
    - Harrier25 says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 19:12
      
      Oh well, at least 50,000 retention points from Amex will help to slightly ease the pain. Just a shame as like you, it was great for topping up Che. Have no idea if beardy will be as accommodating. It ends a profitable Hilton earning route too! 😭
- Char Char says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 09:40
  
  I would if you could give me some benefit to doing so
Robert says:

1 Oct1 October 17:36

Apologies if it’s been asked/answered already (but we’re up to 12 pages now…) but what’s the legal basis for this cancellation? Have we been doing something against the Creation T&C by simply linking the card to Curve that they’ve only just now realised? I renewed on 24 September, and certainly wouldn’t have used the card for the last week if there’d have been some more warning!
- Ryan says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:40
  
  T&Cs say they can close without reason at any time (with notice) as the same with most accounts / banks
  
  If they don’t want to supply you (you are their customer) then they don’t have to
  - Robert says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 17:44
    
    Fair. I assumed there’d be something along those lines, just wondered if this was a specific breach of something in their eyes… If there seems to be a route to get a pro rata refund I’ll join in… I get it if I cancelled, but if THEY cancel without a breach of a T&C on our part, seems a bit off they get to keep the full fee for an entire year for 3 month’s use
  - jj says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 17:46
    
    Ryan, true. But regarless of the contravtual terms, they still have to treat you fairly as defined by the FCA.
    - Roy says:
      
      1 Oct1 October 20:28
      
      It’s hard to see how they can be considered to be acting in any way fairly towards the (majority?) of Curve users who have never engaged in any manufactured spending, cash recycling, NS&I transactions, or anything like that.
  - Mark says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 19:49
    
    And interestingly there’s no reason in the letter. Just “we’re closing you’re account”. Presumably deliberate on the basis they are simply exercising their right to do that without wanting to argue cause. Personally I think they’ve concluded that anyone who uses Curve is unlikely to be the kind of customer that’s ever going to be profitable to them in terms of things like interest charges and foreign exchange fees, regardless of where the spend went and even if they weren’t putting large amounts through the card.
Toddy says:

1 Oct1 October 17:46

I’ve noticed that Curve have been replying to people on Twitter…
“We are aware that Creation have taken steps to prevent their customers from spending with Curve. We’re working with them to discuss this stance and we’ll post an announcement once we have an update”.

Feels like Amex all over again with them!

My worry (and theirs!) will be that other card issuers follow suit…
- Youllnever says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:52
  
  It hasn’t been a good journey for Curve – looks as if their product is being whittled down to near non-existent purpose.
  - LostAntipod says:
    
    3 Oct3 October 11:35
    
    This is exactly my view of Curve. I’ve just written to
    - LostAntipod says:
      
      3 Oct3 October 11:36
      
      …them asking why I should keep the card.
- Harrier25 says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 17:54
  
  I think customers unlinking their cards and running scared will be the big immediate issue for Curve, long before any problems that may arise from other card issuers.
  - Youllnever says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 18:08
    
    That’s what I’ve done coincidentally – don’t really want to risk my other cards being closed down as well.
  - Roy says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 21:40
    
    Why would Curve care? Customers cost Curve money – presumably they’d be happy for people to stop using their services /s
- His Holyness says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 20:19
  
  I’m happy I paid by annual fee on a credit card for some S75!
Jimbob says:

1 Oct1 October 18:03

Wouldn’t it have been simpler simply to add a cash advance fee of 3% to any pseudo cash advances such as NS&I?
The MS would have quickly stopped