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.

Maciek says:

2 Oct2 October 07:57

Creation’s trustpilot score still appears way too high at 2.5…
- Char Char says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 10:24
  
  I’m sure karma will help them out!
Alex Sm says:

2 Oct2 October 07:58

Meanwhile, Curve updated its T&Cs, basically introducing 1.5% commission for all potential MS transactions, incl NSI, and says it is still in talks with Curve.

PS I have not received any notifications from Creation. I’m on free card
Mark says:

2 Oct2 October 08:01

All I ever did was £200 a month ATM withdrawal which was generally in Europe. I never did any MS, I was putting 30k+ in genuine transactions through it. It’s my only credit card other than Amex. My letter hasn’t arrived yet. However my fee came out 4 weeks ago and I am 5k away from triggering another free night so in my view I am chasing for my pro rata refund as I doubt I will get free night. My only regret I guess is not doing MS spend as it sounds we’ve all been tarred with the same brush except the MS crew have come out on top. Fair play.
Andrew says:

2 Oct2 October 08:18

I have always used Curve with my HSBC WE MasterCard to pay HMRC and other bills that can be paid via debit card. I noticed that that stopped accruing points, presumably because HSBC has flagged the Curve BIN. I am getting the Virgin+ for the current bonus, does anyone know if HMRC payments via Curve generate points through Virgin? If not then the so called ‘Curve Fronted’ has become a front for taking our money.

With Tesco shutting its current accounts, the opportunities to get points by paying your taxes are diminishing. Any bright ideas from the good people on this thread?
- Reney says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 08:22
  
  V should give points BUT they changed their T&C a while back, the IT may not have caught up yet but it probably will at some unknown point. It was never clear if HMRC payment was included in the T&C changes as it was vague. Bare that in mind before applying for an expensive card.
- WillPS says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 09:37
  
  Tesco Clubcard Pay works just the same as the old Tesco Current account did in this regard.
  - Andrew says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 10:34
    
    Thanks this is useful.
Ian M says:

2 Oct2 October 08:23

I have the IHG card and used it with curve a few times in the past. I’ve never once used it to pay NS&I or any form of MS whatsoever.

If they intend to close my account then good riddance to them.

How on earth do they think they can close people’s accounts like that and not issue a pro rata refund on the annual fee?!
Goonface says:

2 Oct2 October 08:26

I actually HATE the Creation brand. This hatred spawned before the spat with Curve but this latest move shows that Creation doesn’t care about the customers and is willing to create collateral damage in a clearly B2B spat.

I have some specific issues with Creation’s operations, but put this way, I never want to see another Hotel brand ever partner with them. If I get notified my card is cancelled, I’ll be boycotting all of Creation’s products for eternity – even the underlying loan arrangements to finance product purchases.
Jez says:

2 Oct2 October 08:27

Some guy recycled money in the U.S with the same kind of clever actions, it was on one of the other Airmiles blogs a few years ago, if I recall he netted well over a million Dollars cash back this way anyone remember??! The points and card market benefits in the uk is tiny in comparison, only now these badly managed Uk variations cards are only working this out about 3 years later.
You can also add VIRGIN CREDIT CARDS AND HSBC WORLD ELITE to this list of changes (without them informing customers) for Curve and Revolute cards also!!
Amex are they only smart Uk arm credit card company to work this out in 36 hours when CURVE allowed Beta rollout to add Amex cards, as I’m sure Rob posted, only a small amount of people recycled over £10 millions or £100m (ROB can you confirm) in that short period of time!! Then closed it all down in 36 hours. Smart Amex on the ball…
If they gave bonus points for spend( like the U.S) 6X spend etc for certain shops regularly more bonus transfers to airlines like the U.S, not every 18 months like tight HSBC last month to BA.
Like America they would have a bigger market cap of people using credit cards to shop in the uk. Which in turn would make it more viable for these badly run companies to operate here on this badly run tiny overcrowded island we call home.
- Kate Last says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 17:45
  
  Which changes to hsbc are you referring to? I have the WE and didn’t notice anything recently.
Vin says:

2 Oct2 October 08:59

I used Curve with my free IHG card a few times in the past, but not in the last few months. So far, I have not received any notification regarding Curve or cancellation (literally used the IHG card yesterday and it was fine).

So, maybe they are not cancelling ALL cards as the title suggests?
- Youllnever says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 09:02
  
  It’s being sent out by snail mail, so it might just have been delayed.