Virgin Money Discussion & Feedback

I have found the SMS texts to be pretty good in all honesty.
I did have a bit of a frustrating experience when they blocked a transaction to my Monzo account pending a security review.
I passed all the checks on the phone and it was a random transaction that was selected ; no other reasoning behind it.

They then passed it over to the security team to review and I was advised I would be back online within 4 hours… 6 hours passed to then be told I had to wait until a letter arrived with a Reference code.

Letter arrived 8 days later, phoned up, quoted the reference and I was back online within 30 minutes.
Good to see security processes in place however it was a bit excessive given I’ve had experience with quicker methods through taking selfies to verify my identity etc.

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If my account was locked waiting for a letter I would be closing it. What a ridiculous way to run a bank.

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Yeah it’s been a bit of a nightmare since the change over to be quite honest.
Went to give them a quick call today to check something regarding my account - automated voice on the line saying the phones are down and to try again later.

I’m just so glad its nothing serious that needs urgent attention :grimacing:

I was considering opening an account with them to have as a backup for the free worldwide spending etc but think I’ll leave it. Posting things for security would majorly annoy me as I’m rarely home.

I’ve always been with the Clydesdale for many years as my main account (First account I ever opened) and it migrated to B and then to VM.

Never really had that much of an issue with them until lately to be perfectly honest. Does take one bad experience though!

I just posted this in another topic. Would be interested to hear anyone else’s experiences!

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I’ve just signed up for a virgin money current account as I’m looking for somewhere to move my main nationwide current account to (got fed up with the silly card reader).

First impressions are good, sign up process was easy, fast, and looked good.

The app seems pretty good, not to the same level and Monzo or starling but certainly better than Nationwide’s. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly straightforward to use though, some options are hidden away.

I paid in a cheque using the cheque imaging which got approved within a couple hours.

I transferred some money from my nationwide account and put it in to some pots. As you said, the balance on the account updated instantly but the transaction list took a few hours to update which is a bit strange.So I was able to move the money from my current account to the savings account even though there was no record of the money actually being transferred in which is odd behaviour.

Overall, I’m quite happy with it. I’ll need to test it out for a few more weeks but I’ll probably end up doing a switch to it as my main account.

Have you disregarded Starling and Monzo as your main account?

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I had Monzo and starling accounts which I closed at the start of 2019.

There was something about Monzo that just didn’t sit right with me, honestly can’t put my finger on it but it just isn’t the bank for me. I may just be a bit too “traditional” when it comes to banking. The whole pay point saga was the final nail for me I think, it’s just not good enough really.

Starling definitely felt like a bank I could use as my main account. It’s branding and app feel more “banky” to me which is something I like.

However, I’m going with the virgin account at the moment as I do like the high street presence so I can pay in cash when needed (could use post office with starling but sometimes branches are easier), they have a lot more history (I know Monzo and starling are FSCS protected but still puts my mind at ease), and they have internet banking which is something I like to use (old fashioned). I also like the fact that they have a full range of products such as regular saving account, ISA’s, Credit cards etc as I’ll probably take advantage of a few of them.

Still not totally decided, I’ll give virgin a go but may end up going back to starling. Overall, i just don’t think a full on neobank is right for me for the reasons state above. Plus got the free overseas transactions and withdrawals with virgin and 2% interest on the current account (up to 1k I think) and 0.5% In the linked savings account (won’t make much difference to me as most of my money is in Marcus but still better than nothing).

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Well thought through, if I may say.

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I tend to spend far more time thinking about things like this than I should :joy::joy:

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Yes, for the reasons you’ve given it does sound like old-fashioned banking is more appropriate for you. You should have opted for Child & Co. the third oldest bank in the world.

Is all that visible in the app?

I’ve looked at Virgin Money a few times in the past (but before the new app) and one of the things I didn’t like was their in-branch, phone, and online presence seemed disjointed. For example, to open a savings account you had to decide on either one which is managed through branch + phone or one which is managed entirely online. It couldn’t be all three together.

Is that conditional on actually using the account: min money going in/out per month or can you just dump £1k in there and treat it like a savings account?

Im unsure, i would assume that as a new customer it will all be within the app. It appears that legacy Customers from B, Clydesdale, Yorkshire, and old virgin money are still being migrated which confuses things, so different logins for old savings accounts and credit cards etc. Must be pretty hard to combine 4 systems and I can understand why it would take time but it’s certainly confusing. On the website when I go to log in it does ask which type of current account I have a

With regards to the interest rate, there is no criteria mentioned on the website, but it only pays interest on 1k. When you sign up a savings account is opened as well which is where the pots live which has its own sort code and account number. That pays 1% at the moment but is going down to 0.5% on the 30t June. No criteria stated for that either.

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The set up is a bit of a mess at the moment!
If you open up a Virgin Money current account, you get a Virgin Money Linked savings account with 1%.
However, if you open up a Virgin Money Savings account itself, you get a seperate log in which you can’t see if you log into the ‘Clydesdale/Yorkshire’ platform!

They are also really slow at updating transactions. I remember one time my available balance was showing as having £40 in there. I moved the £40 into a savings account only for my account to be £10 overdrawn a few days later.

Turned out a transaction that was pending was showing -£10 but didn’t actually update the available balance for some reason!!

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:joy::joy::joy:

(Not intending to pick on @JIMMWX or @lpoolrob specifically, those were just the two most recent examples of this sentiment I’ve seen.)

Yeah it is a bit shambolic but I guess that comes with the territory of migrating loads of legacy systems across to one. I had a look at some of their financial results, looks like they’re still in the process of migrating with an aim to have it finished by 2021.

Guess they want to take it slow and not do a tsb

Currently have a Classic Plus account to get some interest on my salary. Its 1.5pc whereas VM is 2.012pc? Max balance 1.5k and 1k respectively, so presume you could eek more out of TSB or did I not deserve that B in GCSE Maths

I have a Two Take ISA edition with VM and a regular saver but its on a totally different system I beleive

Yes, annoyingly is is! I wanted the ability to view my Virgin Money savings alongside the current account and linked savings account but unfortunately this wasn’t the case - and seemed like it was going to take them a long time to sort out as well.

On paper, I think the current account is a very good product and they sell it really well but in practice, it’s quite the opposite. A very buggy experience on the whole.

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The text alerts are the closest to Monzo/Starling in that you get a text for every transaction in and out (if you set it up)
It would be good for these to come from the actual app itself!!

On a plus side, the overdraft interest rate is very competitive atm too ; I currently get 19.9% whereas my Monzo account was changed to 39.9%

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