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.

BlueThroughCrimp says:

1 Oct1 October 14:36

To quote Omar Little
It’s all in the game!

Maybe there’ll be less (pointless) code talking now, with any luck.
- G says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 14:57
  
  “The game’s out there, and it’s play or get played”
  - Jez says:
    
    2 Oct2 October 09:02
    
    Exactly G 👍 I’m surprised this didnt happen at least 12-18 months ago, but HSBC and Virgin credit cards only worked it out beginning of this year!
    - Kate Last says:
      
      2 Oct2 October 15:16
      
      @Jez What exactly did HSBC worked out this year?
      - rob(staaaar) says:
        
        2 Oct2 October 22:52
        
        @Jez – that they’d been getting played!
Sammyj says:

1 Oct1 October 14:41

Not had any correspondence from Creation yet about my free IHG card. I linked it to Curve years ago solely to use in Costco when they didn’t accept credit cards, and probably only used it for that 2-3 times. Otherwise always used the actual card. But that would all have been on a previous expired card. Interesting to see if they kick me out or not, they’ve made a good few quid out of me over the years. Not especially bothered these days, lost interest in IHG when we were banned from America!
Wollhouse says:

1 Oct1 October 14:46

Well, whilst we’re on the topic of crappy credit card service…. I’ve just been on hold for 1hr 20 minutes to speak to Virgin CC. I need to do a chargeback or sec 75 for an event that was supposed to take place in May 2020. It’s been postponed 3 times. Online, Virgin says to submit a form… But when you click on the link, it advises the page is broken. When i finally spoke to a customer service, I was told i needed to speak to the Dispute team so was put back on hold. they then advised they’re “in the process of updating the form”. if anyone else needs the dispute team, the direct number is 08000286756 and they’re open mon – fri from 10am -2pm. They do NOT have an email you can submit your documentation via; they don’t have a portal, you must post everything. How quaint. He also advised that as they are saying my event “might” take place in November 21 the vendor is not in breach despite their terms stating they had 12 months to deliver from May 2020. I disagreed and all in all it’s been a very joyful 200 minutes of my life. So, I’m posting the dispute number in the hopes it might save someone else time. I previously had to raise a dispute with Amex and to be fair to them, they dealt with it over the phone very promptly, provided me with a link to upload docs and sorted it within days. Two very different experiences.
- Jez says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 09:07
  
  Virgin are crap had similar problems with their customer services, complaints etc, just closed all my accounts with them savings and credit cards. You want to try getting through to Virgin Atlantic now that’s another game !! When their boss is out the cosmos employees don’t bother 😂
Johnny5a says:

1 Oct1 October 14:47

Does having a cancelled credit card affect your credit rating? (I don’t think so, but just checking)
- SteveJ says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 14:50
  
  Talk on page 4 of this thread about a potential CIFAS marker.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    1 Oct1 October 15:35
    
    There’s no CIFAS marker kit because a CC company decided to lose your account.
- Dan Loves Christmas says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 15:02
  
  I suppose it could do in the short term, if it changes the % credit utilisation. So if you have a total of 10k credit limit across all your card, and you run a balance of 1k – you’re using 10% of your credit. If you lost a card which accounted for the majority of the 10k credit limit then that could change those percentages. If this was your only credit card and it was closed, then I should think that could also be a scenario which wouldn’t look good.
Mark Phillips says:

1 Oct1 October 14:53

Just opened my letter. No explanation whatsoever. Just states that my account will be closed on 4th December!
- Youllnever says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 16:24
  
  One day later than most! Everyone I’ve heard are having it cancelled on the 3rd.
Ryan says:

1 Oct1 October 14:54

Got my cancellation for black too. I’ve got a white. I wonder if that letter is in the post. I’ll try to get my annual fee refunded, like most others. Gutted though, I liked that card
Britbronco says:

1 Oct1 October 14:55

Received the letter for both Marriott and IHG white card. Very disappointed to lose the 10 free nights credit from the Marriott card. Ridiculous behaviour from Creation since Curve is now banned anyway!
Josh says:

1 Oct1 October 14:56

So i’ve had the card for just several months yet received the same letter. Wasn’t able to ever utilise it for MS so it’s insane that this is happening + they are refusing to give a pro-rata refund, I imagine this must not be legal?

Like if I took out broadband with virgin, paid for the year, then 3 months in they cancel it and take the full amount?
- CH says:
  
  1 Oct1 October 16:37
  
  Virgin Media and other broadband providers do regularly do that! I have had two different providers both fail to provide contracted services (their problem), and yet they still tried to make me pay. You will find reports of the same all over various uk consumer forums and websites. I would not be surprised if Creation do the same.
- David says:
  
  2 Oct2 October 10:56
  
  The fee charging card has been closed to new applicants for well over a year. Don’t understand how you’ve only had it a few months