Anyone else tried using Virgin Money now they’ve rebranded Clydesdale Bank’s B debit card?
Personal experience:
I was interested in this card because it allowed you to have pots within your savings account. All sounds really good - but they kept on losing my money it appeared. The overall balance would double sometimes when I transferred money in but then I would have to transfer money in and out in order to get the accounts to balance. It was all very frustrating!
Their transactions never kept up to date either - they always took a few hours to appear, even when transferring between internal accounts and the balances would update.
I wonder if anyone else has had experiences with them? Either as B or Virgin Money?
Hi, I opened an account a month or so ago for the interest and it initially seemed okay but I had to call security to verify a payment (which I didn’t mind) and was told it would go through within a few hours. I ended up calling 3 times over 4 days. Each time I was told it would go through soon but on the evening of the 4th day the payment moved from pending to failed with no notification or explanation. I am assuming it timed out but am waiting for a response to my complaint to find out.
I have no idea what has happened but it would have been quicker for someone from their security team to walk to my house, personally ask me the questions, stop for a cup of tea and then walk back to verify the transaction. I suspect their backroom systems are in a muddle - the security verification puts you through to Clysedale Bank but secure messages via the app are signed off by Yorkshire Bank.
Based on trustpilot I’m not the first person to have this issue but the interest isn’t worth the hassle so I’ll be closing it once my complaint is resolved! Hopefully others will have a better experience.
Yup, same problem. Opened it for savings, paid in money, left it there for the rest of the month. First of next month needed to borrow some of it while I waited for other money to come in. Tried to move it, blocked. Called, passed security check they told me it would be sorted ‘soon’ after a manual review.
That would have been fine - no objections to well handled AML/fraud checks.
2 days later still ‘pending’, so I called them and explained this wasn’t good enough. Told them to cancel the transfer and I’ll send it back to the source account - shouldn’t raise any suspicions, right?
Blocked. Called again, and had to wait 24 hours and it eventually showed up.
On the 3rd call, I questioned how they could classify my returning some of my money to its original source as appearing to be fraud/laundering. CS admitted they block all initial payments to make you get in touch. I assume this somehow helps them tick a KYC box.
So having been complimentary about their easy sign up process elsewhere, I’m disappointed. To test, I made another small transfer to the same account and it was again blocked until the next morning (I didn’t bother calling this time). Would probably have written it off as ‘teething trouble’ if they’d okayed that transfer (<£1!), but don’t think they are worth the effort for £20/year.
On the plus side, I have a perfect account to transfer to Halifax who’ll give me the same interest I’d earn with Virign in 5 years just for switching to them, and 3 times the ‘interest’ going forwards. Having been a bit put off by the need to juggle money around with this account, its still going to be less hassle than using the Virgin account.
TL;DR - Classic case of old world banks trying to emulate fintechs and failing.
What a hassle! I think you’re right about old banks trying and failing to emulate the new banks. I used Halifax for 20+ years before switching to Monzo though and never had any problems so that sounds like a good idea. I have kept an old account there because you can scan in cheques which is occasionally handy.
I am interested in VM Current account but after reading so many bad reviews I am not sure that why I wonder if you could help make my mind up
How the website works?
Apparently the app is hard to use lags
Customer service is atrocious apparently
What about closing peoples account or locking their cards
I am with NatWest atm but I need to change bank and VM interest sounds tempting
I set up a current account with virgin in may and then switched my main current account a few weeks later (from nationwide) and honestly I’m pretty happy.
Had to call customer service to sort out something and it was fine, pretty happy with the service. The app is good enough. The website is really good in my opinion.
Re customer service, the latest current account satisfaction results rate virgin (including the rebranded B current account) solidly on the midfield. I have a friend who works in the call centre and he says they are really starting to focus on customer satisfaction. They’re investor literature says they’re aiming for a top 3 result in a couple of years so there seems to be a serious effort to improve this.
They’re going through a transition phase at the moment which complicates matters but honestly I can say it’s all been fine.
There is live chat within the app and on the website but when I tried to change my address, request an overdraft, or use the current account switch service I was told I had to call so i’m not entirely sure what live chat can be use for to be honest.
Every time I’ve used the live chat I’ve been told to call or go into branch to do something. I would argue that signing up to an app-based account I should be able to do everything in that app
That’s how I feel I mean when there any issue
I can use chat with NatWest. Waiting for respond but it does the job. I know to change details you have to use card reader or go to the branch but any advice should be easier to get without being stuck in queue for ages.
I had weird situation with NatWest where their assistant missed on digit in standing order reference number and money didn’t go there where it should I messaged them and in less than an hour I had my money back to my account and missing digit was added.
This sort of oddity will go once it has been fully rebranded. Everything will be Virgin Money then, “Virgin Money U.K. PLC” on some legal documents - but that is close enough not to be noticeable.
The situation pre-Virgin with Clydesdale and Yorkshire was that Yorkshire was technically a “brand” of Clydesdale, and it was Clydesdale Bank which had the banking license - so if you are a Yorkshire customer you always see some references to Clydesdale. This is only getting more confusing now that Virgin sometimes crops up too, but you have to expect this a bit with any merger.
They have delayed the integration slightly to focus on supporting their customers through coronavirus, but I think this is fair and sensible.