Virgin Money M Plus Saver increased its rate to 2.00% Gross (2.02 AER)

[mckeehan]

On balances up to 25K, anything over 25K only gets 1.5% Gross.

Worth noting for high rate tax payers this would push them over the £500 tax free allowance per year.

Also, no news on if the Current account will have an interest rate rise. As that always had the 2% interest on the first £1,000.

I know there are better options out there currently, but its good to see the banks at least trying to be competitive.

 

[marrek]

@mckeehan LOL! Just switched out of this back into my Atom one. Back over it goes hahahha

 

[mckeehan]

@marrek I’m sure in the coming weeks and months we will have even better rates. Banks need to stay competitive, especially in this economical climate. I think we all have our eyes on Chase right now waiting for a bombshell 2.5% rate wishful thinking!

 

[strave]

@mckeehan The only rate increase Chase has been doing is the error rate.

 

[lisadaisy]

@mckeehan I don’t reckon Chase are going to budge. Obviously it’s just opinion but they’ve been off the pace for several months now. My cashback is still going so I leave it open but they have constant technical problems. I wouldn’t leave my savings in there, typical luck would be app is down when you need to get at them…

 

[mckeehan]

@lisadaisy Thats possible. We don’t know what their strategy is, it’s entirely possible they are happy with the deluge of new customers they got from their initial 1.5% rate plus cash back.

Funny you mention app issues. Their app is currently down right now! Myself and my partner both getting bad gateway error.

 

[timberlake]

@mckeehan I think the Chase 1.5% was actually to lure people into using their current account.

They don't seem to do any lending yet so no need to compete on savers properly

 

[mckeehan]

@timberlake Oh absolutely. If I remember right, Chase has a 10 year goal in the UK to start offering other financial services. Maybe credit cards, mortgages etc. They want everyone in their ecosystem so when that day comes it makes a lot of sense to use their other services.

 

[marrek]

@mckeehan Yeh i've moved out of Chase and just use it for the cashback now. Once that dries up, I won't really have any reason to use it.

 

[gwen1]

@marrek Me and tandem.

 

[ellann2]

@mckeehan Worth flagging that Virgin has some of the worst customer support, app and customer practices going. Had a really terrible experience and won't be going back even if they lead the market in interest rates.

 

[mckeehan]

@ellann2 Yeah I’ve always heard bad things. Not to mention their bank is split into various legacy customer sets which makes open banking a pain in the arse or impossible for new customers.

 

[rexmegabizz]

@ellann2 The app itself is almost unforgivably bad. It feels like something from 2010 - miles behind the competition.

 

[carrera500]

@ellann2 I pulled my money out as their app hard crashed to the point it wouldn't ever reboot up again. Forced me to re-install it again and that was a ballache to do. Moved it to Chase which is now also proving to be less reliable than it was AND it can take a minute or to for even internal account transfers to show up.

I've just had an AMEX Platinum CB card approved, so I'll be using that for the CB side of things now and pay off that bill every month from the highest APR% account that has a reliable app!