Finance Choices
Virgin Credit Card
Virgin - one of the most respected brands in Britain - is now becoming one of the biggest brands of the 21st century. They are involved in planes, trains, finance, soft drinks, music, mobile phones, holidays, cars, wines, publishing, bridal wear - the lot! What tie all these businesses together are the values of business tycoon Richard Branson. They have created over 200 companies worldwide, employing over 25,000 people and with total revenues around the world in 2002 exceeded £4 billion (US$7.2 billion).
Virgin first started off with the Virgin music stores which has quickly developed into a major financial institution. In the Virgin group now you can find a whole host of companies that carry the famous Virgin logo such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Trains and of course, Virgin Money. With Virgin Money they have offered one of the best credit cards in the UK at the present time.
The Virgin credit card has some really attractive features that include a long balance transfer of 9 months, discounts on your mobile phone bill and the innovative Virgin credits system. Every time you use your Virgin credit card you will generate Virgin credit points that can be used at the online virgin store. 1 point is the equivalent to £1 and they have some great discounts on cd's, dvd's and video games. In addition to these you can get discounted travel accident insurance, free purchase protection and protection against fraud on your Virgin credit card.
There are two different types of credit cards on offer by Virgin. The first is for 0% balance transfers and this rate is available for 9 months from the day your account is opened and comes with a typical APR of 15.9% on card purchases. You have no annual fee on your Virgin credit card and a free 24 telephone helpline should you require assistance. Another handy feature of the Virgin credit card is that you can manage your account online, letting you view your balance, your credit limit etc. over a 6 month period.
The more you review the Virgin Credit Card the more you begin to find yourself getting very excited about this card and starting to feel the urge to apply now.
Current Virgin Credit Card Offers:
Summary of the Virgin Credit Card
A great flexible offer from Virgin which you can decide what plan suits you best. There are protection plans provided free and a valuable rewards program that you can treat yourself with makes this an impressive credit card for your pocket!
Apply now
Virgin first started off with the Virgin music stores which has quickly developed into a major financial institution. In the Virgin group now you can find a whole host of companies that carry the famous Virgin logo such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Trains and of course, Virgin Money. With Virgin Money they have offered one of the best credit cards in the UK at the present time.
The Virgin credit card has some really attractive features that include a long balance transfer of 9 months, discounts on your mobile phone bill and the innovative Virgin credits system. Every time you use your Virgin credit card you will generate Virgin credit points that can be used at the online virgin store. 1 point is the equivalent to £1 and they have some great discounts on cd's, dvd's and video games. In addition to these you can get discounted travel accident insurance, free purchase protection and protection against fraud on your Virgin credit card.
There are two different types of credit cards on offer by Virgin. The first is for 0% balance transfers and this rate is available for 9 months from the day your account is opened and comes with a typical APR of 15.9% on card purchases. You have no annual fee on your Virgin credit card and a free 24 telephone helpline should you require assistance. Another handy feature of the Virgin credit card is that you can manage your account online, letting you view your balance, your credit limit etc. over a 6 month period.
The more you review the Virgin Credit Card the more you begin to find yourself getting very excited about this card and starting to feel the urge to apply now.
Current Virgin Credit Card Offers:
- 0% balance transfers for 9 months
- Discounts on your mobile phone bill, if you are with Virgin of course!
- Earn Virgin credits every time that you use the card, £1 spent = 1 point
- Five different card designs to choose from
- Free travel accident insurance
- Free Purchase protection
- Protection on fraudulent use of your card
- 10.9% typical APR variable (without rewards or introductory offers)
- 15.9% typical APR variable (with introductory offers and rewards)
Summary of the Virgin Credit Card
A great flexible offer from Virgin which you can decide what plan suits you best. There are protection plans provided free and a valuable rewards program that you can treat yourself with makes this an impressive credit card for your pocket!
Apply now
posted by Bruce Wayne at 9:39 AM
Virgin Credit Card
10 Comments:
This virgin credit card is typical Branson - smooth!!
I applied for this card online at the Virgin money website and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and quick it was to complete. They didn't want to know too much information that required you to get your belongings out, all I needed was my other credit/store cards to be able to input the information for a balance transfer.
Once the online form was completed, within about 2 weeks I received a form in the post to sign and return in a pre paid envelope, and there was an attachment on the envelope to confirm your balance transfers that you also put in the envelope.
After about another 7 days, a Virgin rep rang to confirm that I had been accepted and that I should receive the card within the next 7 - 10 working days, which I did. I did however have to ring them to make sure that the balances had been transferred over, which hadn't so I had to get out all the details, again, to do it over the phone, which was a pain. So my advice is don't fill in all the balance transfer details, just ring them when you receive your card, or don't be a wally like me and throw away all your details so that if they don't transfer your balances, all the information is to hand!
Anyway, card received, life continued as normal and THEN.......I received a parcel in the post which was from Virgin Vie, and was £30 of cosmetics etc for free, just for opening an account with them. I was most surprised and pleased, as I had no idea that these were part of the deal of having a Virgin card, so there's another incentive to get a card!
I have only had this card for a short while, but it is 0% on balance transfers for 6 months, which is the reason that I took it out and after that it is the normal 16.9%. I tend not to have cards that don't have a 0% on balance transfers, so about every 6 months, I change cards anyway, so I don't have much idea about ongoing bills etc. Sorry! If you're wise you would do the same and not stay with one card, just keep chopping and changing and get the 0% interest rates as there are so many card companies offering this facility, why pay any more than you have to?!?
I did a quick calculation this morning and it appears that if I successfully apply for a Virgin Money credit card (I see from this site that they are offering 9 months interest-free credit) do a "balance transfer" of 6000 UKP into my V1 account I stand to save around 260 UKP in V1 interest charges over 6 months for not much effort.
If I can find enough cards with interest-free offers for long enough periods I should be able to pay off my mortgage entirely... ;-)
Is there a catch? The only problem I envisage is that I will need to use a credit card cheque to do the balance transfer which might make the credit card company suspicious. Has anyone used credit card cheques for "catch-free" balance transfers in the past?
Many thanks.
Hi,
It appears I was correct although not all credit cards allow 0% transfers to bank accounts (rather they restrict to other cards) and there is credit scoring to take into account too.
I'm off to apply for all 6 cards listed which fall into my plan... Heh, heh...
Hey anon,
get an Egg card, then any othewr cards can transfer to egg, and egg allows you to transfer to V1.
I did this for a while, had aroun £13K on 0% cards. Yep, you havce to accept that gradually you will trash your credit rating. I don't do it currently as I became a sole trader and am currently changing careers so have no steady income to get any more cards with.
Regards
John
Thanks JayHoe thought I'd just to let you know the outcome...
I applied for an Egg card and (the fools!) they gave me a £15,000 credit limit. I reckon that has the potential to save me over £500 in interest payments (ignoring any minimum payments I will need to make) so long as I can get it all into my V1 soon.
Rock on!
Just credit the whole lot to your V1 card - once a week V1 pays of amounts owing on the debit card - or takes credits of and pulls them into your account!
Just don't miss the payments, and don't miss clearing the lot at the end of the 0% period.
Cheers
Better than that - the Egg card allows transfers directly into bank accounts (better to fund an overdraft on a card eh?) and it is all setup directly online. From picking up the plastic in an envelope off the hall mat to paying the full amount into my V1 took about 5 minutes.
Love it!
Throw out your boring old credit card. Virgin lets you design your own. Choose from various existing set ups, or let Virgin work out the best set-up for your needs. Choose your interest rate, you can even choose how you want your card to look. Use your accumulated reward points on great Virgin products. Apply online.
I took out a virgin card and the application process was very smooth. I transferred the balance from another card with a interest rate of 15.9% because the rate was 13.9% and I only pay the minimum each month.
After about a year I became ill and made a claim on the payment protection policy. The insurers took a long time to make the payment and although I was assured by customer services that I did not need to worry because they were aware of the claim, I did worry because the insurers did not make the payment by the due date and so I made a payment myself.
Shortly after this my card expired and I did not receive a replacement. When I queried this I was told my card had been suspended because of the manner in which my account had been run (there was a direct debit set up so they were receiving all payments on time). This was without any notification to me or any explanation. It took me a lot of phoning around (at least five or six calls where I was passed from department to department and call queue to call queue). Finally they admitted that this should not have happened and that there were sending me a new card. the card did not arrive. Instead I got a letter saying they were increasing my interest rate to 24.9% because of the way in which I managed by account. I was furious and wrote a letter of complaint. MBNA acknowledged that the service I had received was bad and that "lessons had been learned" and they paid £30 to my account as compensation for the time that it had taken to sort out the insurance claim. However, they refused to budge on the interest rate and so now I am paying double the amount of interest per month on my card so the payment that used to cover interest and some of the balance now only covers interest.
I think it stinks and their excuse about the management of my account does not wash because they have already acknowledged that the insurance incident was not my fault by giving me compensation. They also tried to say it was because I make the minimum payment each month why my interest rate had changed. this makes no sense at all - if they do not want customers who pay the minimum they should say so (they knew I was transfering a balance) instead of changing the rules after the event.
If I had left my balance where it was the interest rate would have been 15.9% but now I am worse off. I have been deceived by them and now they do not want to know.
Post a Comment
<< Home