Creation Announces The Closure Of The UK IHG Credit Cards

Creation and IHG are officially parting ways which means the two UK IHG credit cards will soon cease to exist. The writing appeared to be on the wall for a while as you haven’t been able to apply for one for over a year now. Existing cardholders were unaffected and could continue to use their cards to earn IHG points, keep IHG elite status and get a free night at 10k spend. Unfortunately those days are now numbered…

When will the UK IHG Credit Cards close?

Creation has provided cardholders with notice that their UK IHG credit cards will close on the 28th June. If you have an IHG credit card you’ll be moved to the generic Creation credit card which unfortunately doesn’t appear to have any benefits.

If you have an annual fee due to post you will still pay it BUT you will receive a pro-rata refund of the annual fee by the end of July. If you want to get your free night voucher you will need to spend £10,000 before the closure date, this gives you just over 2 months which might be a push for some!

How else can I earn IHG points after the closure of the UK IHG Credit Cards?

Virgin Atlantic

You can earn IHG points by converting your Virgin Points into IHG points. This as you might expect isn’t a great deal with the conversion rate being 1:1. We value a Virgin point at 1p and an IHG point at 0.4p so there is a huge drop in value. If you are looking to use your Virgin points for a hotel you will get a better deal converting into Hilton points at 2:3.

Amex

You can earn IHG points by converting your membership reward points into Virgin Points and then into IHG points. As above this is at a 1:1 conversion rate so it is very poor value. We value a membership reward point at 1p and an IHG point at 0.4p so again a huge drop in value.

HSBC

You can earn IHG points by converting your HSBC points into IHG points. This, again, is poor value with 2 HSBC points converting into 1 IHG point and the card earning 1 point per £1 spent in the UK. We value 2 HSBC points at 1p so transferring into IHG for a point worth 0.4p is a huge drop in value again.

Conclusion

Unfortunately there isn’t currently any plans for a replacement issuer that we are aware of. If you want to collect IHG points you now only have three options that don’t offer particularly good value. Hopefully a new issuer will be along soon to shake up the hotel credit card market…