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

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• Steve says:

  2 Oct2 October 17:23

  Got my letter today for the free IHG card. I do use Curve but only for genuine retail transactions to point earning credit cards, and occasionally for cash withdrawals abroad but only against an underlying current account debit card – never credit card cash advance.

  Genuine question: if a customer only ever uses Curve for genuine retail transactions – no recycling, HMRC or NS&I whatsoever – why would the credit card issuer care? They’ll still earn a share of merchant fees and any annual fees for premium cards. I never hold a balance to pay interest so regardless of using via Curve or by direct card use they ain’t never making money on interest or fees from me. Will credit card issuers close all cards if the customer never pays interest, cash advance or FX fees?

  • Sean says:

    2 Oct2 October 17:26

    Basic economics of card don’t work if they have to give out points and don’t even earn the full fees (which are probably breakeven at best if getting the full fee).

    • NFH says:

      2 Oct2 October 17:56

      That’s why cards that attract full balance payers often have annual fees to cover the costs of operating the card account. Amex cards are a case in point.

  • Memesweeper says:

    2 Oct2 October 20:10

    They may care simply as they now know you are a Curve user, and represent an unmanageable risk (given their IT and their T&Cs, neither of which can be fixed as fast as just closing your account).

    Risk averse business practice now meets regulatory requirement for fair treatment of customers… be interested to see how well Creation fair when the latter takes an interest.

    • Memesweeper says:

      2 Oct2 October 20:12

      Actually, scratch that, they’ve blocked Curve, you are no risk at all. So I have no idea why they’ve lashed out at you like this — IMO you should consider complaining, and if you judge the answer they provide to your complaint unreasonable or unfair, escalate to the regulator.

    • JDB says:

      2 Oct2 October 21:45

      The regulator has of course been fully involved in this!

      • David says:

        2 Oct2 October 23:27

        Absolutely, the lack of insight from commentators here is quite astounding.

        • Patrick Cold says:

          3 Oct3 October 09:25

          Is it though? In the days of social media, little astounds.

      • Genghis says:

        3 Oct3 October 11:28

        I doubt it. IME financial services co’s don’t voluntarily involve regulators when they don’t have to.

        • Phil W says:

          3 Oct3 October 12:03

          Completely agree with Genghis. I would be very surprised if Creation have raised this with the regulator. Insufficient account volumes and would invite further scrutiny.

• Drolma-la says:

  2 Oct2 October 17:55

  Dissatisfied with IHG in general and their handling of customer service in the face of the pandemic, we seriously considered cancelling the IHG card when it came up for renewal in July. On balance, though, we felt that the £99 annual fee was worth it for the unrestricted free night voucher. When I learned of Creation’s policy towards the use of Curve, I would have cancelled it if I thought I could recover that £99 annual. I now feel that if our IHG card is cancelled by Creation, they MUST refund our annual fee pro-rata. Without any factual basis at all, I imagine that this is a convenient way for Creation to get rid of the legacy holders of this card.

• NickS says:

  2 Oct2 October 18:08

  I’ve only ever used the Creation IHG premium card via Curve to get Spire Elite status and it has provided that for a few years (though never felt I was ever treated as special by IHG) plus accumulated gazillions of IHG points over the past few years. Never done any of the slightly dubious type TX. Guess I’ll just drop down to Platinum on the IHG scale due to having interConti Ambassador. Anyway as everyone points out the IHG rewards scheme is pretty useless. Hilton much better so I’ll just move over to spending more with Hilton! Glad I used up my three free IHG credit card nights the other week! Will no doubt work through my IHG points in due course. Have to say that it was an incredibly abrupt letter after an even more abrupt text advising Curve no longer supported and cannot see why they shouldn’t refund the £99 sub pro rata and certainly won’t ever go near anything else operated by Creation or BNP. Irritating but as they say onwards and upwards….

• Chris says:

  2 Oct2 October 19:32

  Some of the dramatic despondency on this subject is unbelievable. The golden goose is dying. Enjoy the spoils of your plundering and look for the next one.
  That’s how I’m taking it – 0.5m IHG points to the good. Ok haven’t yet received the dreaded letter, but it’s hardly a surprise.

• Nick Burch says:

  2 Oct2 October 20:24

  Anyone fancy risking putting a large refundable purchase on their Creation Card in mid November, banking the points, waiting for the axe to fall on the 3rd of December, refunding it back to the cancelled card in mid December, then asking Creation for a cheque for the refund?

  Worked pretty well when the MBNA BMI card stopped paying points….

• Matthew says:

  2 Oct2 October 20:34

  Thought I had escaped the cull but just found the letter at the bottom of the letterbox! Not that bothered to be honest as never did any MS or Ernie with it. Time to get a new visa/mastercard points earning card…

  • SteveJ says:

    2 Oct2 October 21:14

    Linked to Curve?

    • Matthew says:

      2 Oct2 October 22:18

      Linked but never used.

      • Matthew says:

        2 Oct2 October 22:19

        I just used the IHG card for my non amex spend every month and that’s it!

• KJ says:

  2 Oct2 October 23:50

  What’s the situation with paying HMRC with HSBC premier world elite through Curve? A couple of conflicting posts

  • Jonathan says:

    3 Oct3 October 08:59

    Works but no points awarded so pointless in every sense!

• Dan says:

  3 Oct3 October 01:07

  I thought they had blocked Curve from being used with the IHG card. I got this SMS on 9th October:

  “With immediate effect we will be unable to process any transactions using your Curve Card where the transaction is allocated to your Creation issued credit card”.

  If this was true then why cancel the card as well – tricks me as punishment for doing something we had no idea was an issue.

  The letter had no explanation of why the card was cancelled.

  Is there a way to submit an application to the Ombudsman as a group given the claim is the same.

  • Blenz101 says:

    3 Oct3 October 06:16

    Those that called Curve after the original text went out seem to have been told Curve were carrying out an investigation after the block was imposed. Curve said at the time they were in discussion with Creation.

    It would seem those discussions did not end well.

    Even if you put aside the issues with MS, loss of forex fees, ATM withdrawal masking and impact of flex and GBIT the product removes control from the issuer. Take Tesco Bank debit cards as another example, they stopped working with NS&I recently as it wasn’t possible to authorise in the Tesco Bank App. It seems to have been now fixed. However, I could still pay 9k a day into NS&I by using Curve with the authorisation completed via Curve. Tesco Bank had their authorisation and control completely bypassed. It’s obvious this isn’t good for the card issuer.

    We may get comment from the companies involved, particularly Curve who have most to loose but realistically we will never know the conversations which took place internally about what the regulatory, legal and technical options were. The smart money would be they detected those accounts ever linked to Curve and their legal team wrote up the most concise form of words to invoke the 60 days notice clause. Cheapest and easiest way of removing the risk/cost of points without implementing technical fixes only to then play cat and mouse with that segment of their cardholders whilst new routes are identified.

    • Genghis says:

      3 Oct3 October 08:43

      “ Take Tesco Bank debit cards as another example, they stopped working with NS&I recently”

      Still working here!

      • Genghis says:

        3 Oct3 October 08:44

        Ah. Should have continued reading…

      • ThePenguin says:

        3 Oct3 October 08:52

        Wow! Thanks! Im going to start smashing that!

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