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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

Comments (867)

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

  • Rob says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    What chances of reapplying for the white one in a few months and getting approved if you’ve just had one closed with this shenanigans?

  • Peter says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    Also got a cancellation letter today, I have only used it with curve a handful of times and the last times was pre-pandemic.
    Only use it to chase the free night. Shame but they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot here.

  • Voltron says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:58

    Any bets on how many comments this article will get?

  • Anna says:
    1 Oct1 October 13:59

    Could this actually be a ploy to get people off the paid card and onto the free one? I know they are cancelling free cards, but they could hardly not do this if they were being used with Curve like the paid one.

  • JanM says:
    1 Oct1 October 14:01

    Not sure if this was posted here already but Curve updated its terms of service this week to explicitly state that payments to NS&I are treated like those HMRC and others…

    • John says:
      1 Oct1 October 14:32

      With anything Curve you can be sure that 10 other people have already posted it unless you post as soon as the email pops up in your inbox

      • Alex Sm says:
        2 Oct2 October 08:23

        Surprisingly not in this case! I was also waiting for that but this is genuinely the first comment about this

  • Anna says:
    1 Oct1 October 14:01

    Also what will happen with IHG status given via both cards?

  • Paul says:
    1 Oct1 October 14:02

    The free night voucher is received on the card anniversary (renewal) right? My anniversary is in Feb, however I’ve exceeded £10k+ spend this year – can I expect the free night?

    • Lee says:
      1 Oct1 October 14:05

      That’s the question everyone will be asking .

      I think if they dont honour the free night they will find themselves with a lot of cases though the ombudsman .

      • Blenz101 says:
        1 Oct1 October 14:17

        Reasonable to assume if the voucher was earned through legitimate spend a complaint would see you get a voucher.

        Anything cash like on your account via Curve and you won’t be getting anything even with the ombudsman involved, clear breach of the card terms.

        • Chris says:
          1 Oct1 October 15:03

          Is there a clear card term that forbids some of this use though?
          If there is, I can’t find it.

    • CH says:
      1 Oct1 October 14:19

      I’m £45 away from my next free night voucher, about 6 months into my card year. I’m assuming my card will be cancelled. I have never engaged in MS, but did use Curve a fair amount at times (for convenience). It will be interesting to see how they handle awarding the next free nights if they have cancelled the underlying card.

      And like others, while they are unilaterally welcome to cancel my card, I would expect a pro rata refund of the fee.

  • Paul Pogba says:
    1 Oct1 October 14:05

    Is every one in government working furiously to become the most hated in history? If its not NI increases, council tax rises, and fuel shortages its working with the financial services industry to get our hotel credit cards cancelled.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      1 Oct1 October 15:00

      😂

    • Chris says:
      1 Oct1 October 15:08

      Are certain people and the media working hard to make the government hated? Yes.
      Are the Government hated by most people? No.

      In this case, Creation are owned by BNP Paribas (a French Bank), they are not under any instruction from the government to punish their cardmembers.

      Nice try though, have another go?

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

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