Any Virgin One account holders out there?

anneen

Hi, Me again!

Have spoken with First Direct and all is not what it seems. With V1, I have a facility that I can chose to use whenever and for whatever I like. I only pay interest on what I currently owe but I can draw down without any interference.


First Direct are telling me that they will loan you a certain amount that you require now but any extra you may wish for has to be scruitinised to see whether they are prepared to take the risk. In my case, I have approx £20k on interest free credit cards due to expire mid March. They would not add this onto the mortgage but I could request a loan facility to pay this off at the same rate. None of this leaves me with a facility to use beyond my mortgage and credit cards so if I want to spend £30k extending my house in 6 months time, I have to apply for my mortgage to be increased at that time whereas with V1 I would just write out a cheque. The reason I like V1 is that god forbid, I lose my job, I still have plenty of facility to tide me over whereas this would not be the case at first direct. The only way around it I can see is to write me out a big fat cheque to take me to full facility, invest it as a savings account with First Direct and ask for a morgage for the full amount!

System

Hi Aneen,

I explained the credit card situation to my first direct advisor very carefully and he said it would be no problem. I just needed to fill out the application form carefully - stating which cards would be cleared as they were effectively part of my mortgage. I was also asked to simply write a covering letter explaining how I had used credit cards at low rates to reduce my mortgage balance and hence interest payments. I was advised that the underwiters would be familiar with all of this and that it would not affect my application. I phoned them today and they have received everthing and the applciation is proceeding, so I will wait and see! Maybe you got a less experienced advisor? I will keep everyone posted on how things go.

:beer:

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

@anneen ^^ not true... i "borrowed" more than my outstanding mortgage balance and its just sat there is "available".. if i want to i can pay my mobile bill with it (but i'm not that daft!)

The FD offset is just a monster overdraft secured on your house.

System

UPDATE!

As expected, got a call from the lending team. They wanted to clarify my credit card balances. All was agreed after a discussion and call back, and quite reasonably they wanted me to clear the balances using my Virgin One facility before the transfer of the mortgage. Very accommodatingly they have agreed to still progress the application as far as possible in order to expedite the switch. That will happen when I post printouts of my online credit card accounts showing cleared balances, which should update within the next few days. All in all I am very happy with the move. It is scary when you start to move large CC balance transfers back to the mortgage; but remember, if you have done that - put a large amount of your virgin one mortgage onto cards, then you have a) been paying back a large amount of capital (probably) in making the minimum payments and b) saved interest up to the the full rate in some cases on those balances.

I have to add that virign one were happy to agree an increase my facility immediately over the phone by 2k just to ensure there were no cash-flow problems in the changeover. At £29 a pop, virgin one's charges for an unpaid DD or CC payment are about the worst in the business!

So I'm saying goodbye to Credit Card stoozing and hello to a lower monthly committment but a steadily and easily managed decreasing mortgage balance! It will be nice to see it come down. I plan to repay as much as is comfortable for me and my family over the next few years and get set to be in a strong position for rising rates again in 3 -4 year's time.

Once the account has been finally, officially switched I will post confirmation.

Best of luck to everyone else thinking of doing what I'm doing!
:beer:

spence

Hello all FD switchers,

I have the same issues as all you others and I am also in the early stages of a switch over. I would love to hear from somebody who has already jumped, just for reassurance.

My main reason for changing isn't the 0.6% difference but my fear of where RBS are going to take us over the next couple of sticky years, hence if I am going to jump then it makes sense to do it earlier rather than later.

I owe about £68000 on a property worth approx £145000, and would appreciate anyones views on my circumstances.

Thanks to all posts on this forum as I find it reassuring to read about others with the same concerns.

Safety in numbers guys!!

System

Hi Spence,

Well your LTV is only 47% so I would think you're an ideal candidate for FD.

They work on your total monthly outgoings - not groceries, but council tax, school fees, mortgage, other loans and borrowing committments, all totalling not more than 60% of your total GROSS monthly income.

Mine actually worked out at 62% but they were happy to still proceed. My wife and I are very fortunante in earning a reasonable salary each, so 38% remaining of our monthly income is still a comfortable sum. However, they don't consider that, as they apparantly have to follow government or Bank of England guidelines on affordability that say that if you earn more, statistically you spend more on sundries and extras each month; i.e. even if you earned a total of 10000 per month, they would still not allow you to exceed the 60% affordability level despite having an enormous 4000 gross left over!

Good luck with the switch over and keep us all posted!

I was able to print out proof of the payments of my stoozing cards today and will be posting them off to FD later.

:j

System

Mortgage all agreed and should complete in the next couple of weeks. Now I just want the BoE to lower rates again!

System

Virgin One again today failed to lower the rates to their customers by the BoE reduction, instead announcing a cut of just 0.2% from 2nd February, not the 0.5% cut in full.

I am very glad that my First Direct move has now been made, and as I got in in the lowest rate 'window' of just 1.49% above base rate my interest payments will be more than 25% less each month than if I had stayed with Virgin One. This is a sad state of affairs for continuing Virgin One customers.

First Direct are still offering this lifetime tracker offer, but the rate is now 1.89% above BoE base rate for life. Still a great deal and I can vouch that the switchover has not been painful!

Good luck looking for a better deal and ditch V1 ASAP !

:money:

bunking_off

Still doesn't cost in for me. £799 arrangement fee (does that include valuation?) is best part of 2% surcharge for the size of my outstanding debt in One Account. Given the FD rate is 0.5% cheaper than OA, that's a 4 year payback. Would be disappointed if I hadn't repaid by then. Think I'll stick where I am.