Creation cancelling credit cards which have been used with a Curve Card

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

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.

Time to pick up 30,000 Virgin Points?

If you are now looking for a new Visa or Mastercard, don’t forget the excellent 30,000 Virgin Points bonus currently offered on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card which has a few days left to run. Our article is here and you can apply here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

IHG Rewards

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

Redeyedonkey says:

2 Oct2 October 00:43

My feeling on this is that I’m pretty angry with Curve – they clearly haven’t had a clean and straightforward relationship with MasterCard or the main cards used by their customers and we’ve all (curve + creation customers) lost access to no longer issued cards (the Marriott for some and IHG for many) due to Curve.

Sure some of you have made out like bandits – and I am genuinely happy for you – but many of us would have benefitted more long term from just banking our quick 10k spend and free nights absent of any Curve nonsense – Curve was a convenience/Apple Pay thing etc etc.

I almost never got one after the AMEX debacle but … there was so much positivity on here and elsewhere I talked myself around. Great idea from a terrible company is my conclusion in the end. Shame.
- David says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 01:06
  
  Same
- Callum says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 04:29
  
  This has nothing to do with Mastercard, and I don’t think it’s particularly realistic for Curve to have had direct relationships with hundreds of financial organisations (though I know you just said the “main” ones). I’m not sure what that relationship would even entail – just the organisation saying “yes, I’m ok with this”? I’m not really sure why any organisation would explicitly say that anyway given it potentially means they’re missing out on possible fees and it can sometimes be used to circumvent restrictions (yes – they should be able to detect it and stop/charge for it, but why bother with the extra hassle?). Plus, as we saw with Amex, that approval can change at any moment!
C says:

2 Oct2 October 00:49

Received the letter today. Who do they think they are. I am entitled to use curve. How dare they
- VerdantBacon says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 07:06
  
  Who do you think you are? They’re entitled to cancel their card for whatever reason they like
  - Char Char says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 07:12
    
    Can you answer the phone at creation please
    - Wally1976 says:
      
      2 Oct2 October 07:29
      
      In any case, they didn’t give a reason!
  - Roy says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 09:41
    
    Only if the reason is consistent with the FCA requirements to treat customers fairly.
Char Char says:

2 Oct2 October 01:43

Anyone not paying off creation with another credit card have been missing out seeing……
Track says:

2 Oct2 October 01:44

From reading comments on here: Creation are stupids.

Within their own rules, cash withdrawals and cash-like transactions are allowed.

Curve has been passing MCCs.

Instead of taking “a righteous stance”, Creation should have implemented the charging for cash withdrawals + interest, as Tesco bank done rather quickly. Then they would have a stream of income covering their risks and trouble, instead of the shady avoidance to refund the annual fees.
- jil says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 06:36
  
  Cash withdrawal has £200 monthly limit, I doubt it’s the cash withdrawal that caused the problem.
  
  Also I think curve changes the transaction type or mcc for cash withdrawal, otherwise card issuer won’t need to do anything to charge cash withdrawal
  - J says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 09:17
    
    That limit was only ever on paper.
  - Track says:
    
    3 Oct3 October 07:30
    
    No Jil. This is not about cash withdrawal limits on Curve end (eg set by Curve).
    
    Creation and any other credit card could have treated NS&I transactions done via Curve or any other similar transactions as cash-like.
    
    They could have collected extra charges and interest off them, fully correct within own terms and industry practice. The customers would have no leg to stand to question charges and interest for the cash-like transactions.
    
    Will tell you more, the customers wouldn’t have closed their credit card en mass — they would just stop the transactions! No need to for policing, red flags, risk systems, AML systems and compliance staff — just put an appropriate charge and undesired activity will cease…
Anna T says:

2 Oct2 October 06:38

Was going to top up Ernie with bendy backed by Hong Kong but did get the warning email couple weeks ago. Think it’s probably not advisable?
- SteveJ says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 08:25
  
  Do what you like, bendy will block your card straight after but who cares, bendy is dead in the water, might has we’ll have one last hurrah IMO.
- Kate Last says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 17:26
  
  Who are Ernie and Bendy?
  - rob(staaaar) says:
    
    3 Oct3 October 00:33
    
    @kate Last – yep, I’m lost on Earnie, although Bendy’s no longer driving me round the curve…
Kamil says:

2 Oct2 October 06:43

My new card year has just started in September. Unfortunately there have been a few transactions if not I could cancel and get back the £99 right?
Johnny5a says:

2 Oct2 October 06:59

Warning email? From who? HK? As I have to HK card
- Jimbob says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 08:55
  
  Bendy I would have thought, HK tend to do money laundering checks in my experience
  - Jimbob says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 08:56
    
    I had a letter from HK asking to provide evidence of funds, then this was followed up by a phone call
Venturelog says:

2 Oct2 October 07:02

Will the card cancellation impact credit score?
- DJ says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 07:24
  
  I highly doubt it.
- vol says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 07:55
  
  It can do. Virgin cancelled a dormant credit card that I had and my credit score dipped. I was able to reinstate it on the basis it affected my credit score.
  - John says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 07:58
    
    The UK doesn’t have credit scores. Only random numbers that are a broad generalisation of whether a credit reference agency would give you a credit card if they issued credit cards.
    
    Every lender calculates an internal score which is a trade secret. Some of them do it using the CRA systems but those scores are still different from the ones publicly available
- Char Char says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 10:30
  
  It will update your report whether that gives or takes away points is down to the company you apply to