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!

 

[matthewzenz]

@ellann2 What were your experiences? Just opened an account but maybe I should consider elsewhere...

 

[ellann2]

@matthewzenz So! Their app is atrocious, and their requirements for getting the bonus interest rate and any switching bonus was a bit of an ordeal but partially my fault - the savings and current accounts have very similar names and I had the cash balance in the wrong one.

Because I didn't qualify for the cash balance I moved my direct debits and zeroed out the account. In error, one of the direct debits tried to take from the account again - I got no notification of this from virgin (despite having push notifications, email and SMS allowed). They then charged me a £4 fee for a failed direct debit which sent me into an unarranged overdraft. The only notification I got of this is an email saying "you have a document waiting for you" which is the same email they send about changes in terms and conditions and interest rates.

Because of this I didn't notice for a couple of months and it hit my credit score. I contacted their live chat and THREE agents told me they would reverse the fee they charged me before it happened - but that they could do nothing about reporting it to credit agencies.

 

[matthewzenz]

@ellann2 That sounds pretty awful! Such a shame, you'd expect a big company like virgin to be able to afford better customer service. Just shows how little they care about the customer.

 

[collegedude]

@matthewzenz Tbf Virgin aren’t a big company per se. They’re essentially a big brand that lends itself to challenger/startup companies looking to disrupt markets normally by providing a better customer experience.
Personally, I’ve found both the apps to be fine. Maybe not quite as slick as some others but not had technical issues on iOS.

 

[k3v1n55]

@collegedude Not even challenger/startups

Virgin money was previously Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks, in turn owned by National Australia Bank. Northern Rock also merged in at one point. Hence their accounts are across a mess of legacy systems that don't talk to each other.

Virgin Media is owned by a huge telecoms giant Liberty Global. In most of Europe they are known as UPC. Telefonica now has 50% since the O2 merger.

Virgin Atlantic has had 49% shareholders by Singapore Airlines from 1999-2012, which was then sold to Delta, now part is with Air France-KLM.

Virgin Trains was 49% Stagecoach, Virgin Trains East Coast was 90% Stagecoach.

Really Virgin is just a brand used by other big companies to glamorise/modernise part of their business, and Virgin has taken increasingly smaller stakes.

 

[collegedude]

@k3v1n55 Yeah, I’d argue that they start with startups/challengers which get bought/merged for the brand a lot of the time.
In those examples Virgin Direct became Money which bought the remains of Northern Rock which then further merged etc and Virgin Mobile was bought by NTL:Telewest to create VM which was bought by LG etc.