Virgin nearly doubling the interest rate!

belleooo

pshuttle wrote:

I have had a Virgin credit card for roughly a year now. I came home today to find a letter stating that "Your monthly interest rate will increase to 1.8735% - 24.9% PA". Previously my card was at about 15.9%.

That interest rate is absolutely disgusting and I will be moving my money elsewhere as soon as possible. :mad:

I have spoken to Virgin on the phone about this and the operator said nothing could be done about this rate - nor could she answer any questions regarding why the rate had suddenly shot up (other than pure sharp practice!). Well I am transfering my balance ASAP!

Just thought I should share it with you all.

Pete

This happened to me too Pete. I rang them up for an explanation and was told that the cc rate is variable and the rate is depedent on how the account is run. Putting my hands up now I did make one payment out of twelve late by one day, got a late payment charge, I rang up and apologised, explained this was due to ill health and they removed the charge. My other payments have always been well before the deadline and I always pay a little bit extra to clear the debt faster. It seems an harsh punishment for one late payment? Anyway, I had a good old moan on the phone and managed to get it reduced to 18.9% but not to the 15.9%. A lesson well and truly learnt and I deserve no sympathy but I will clear this card and close it asap as in my opinion Virgin/MBNA are way too harsh.

Trr

I have had my Virgin Money card for less than 12 months, have never missed a payment and have taken advantage of the balance transfer facility. I chose Virgin because I fly with them often, where possible like to use their premium cabins and wanted to take advantage of their free companion ticket for which you need to spend £15K in a 12 month period. This I can easily do by putting a lot of my business expenses on the card, so in order to avoid missing the boat (sorry) I transferred my Virgin balance to another 0% card then started to spend. You can imagine my surprise when I received a letter stating my “…. monthly interest rate will increase to 2.0751% - that’s 27.9% p.a.” Their standard is 15.9%. I was so convinced it was a spoof I logged on to my account to ensure I called them via a genuine telephone number.

The first person I spoke to said this was the result of an account review and if I cleared my balance each month it would not matter! The second person I spoke to confirmed there have never been any problems on my account but could not explain the huge increase. They transferred me to who I now understand to be the Loyalty Team. Initially they said this is not an individual person’s decision but is decided by computer!! When I pointed out, 'computers have to be programmed and someone must have stated a set of criteria that states a customer would be a fool to ever use their card again', the operative said he would override hike and return it to 15.9%. No further explanation was offered.

Other than stupid greed - I can only conclude two possible reasons for their original actions:

1). They got the hump that I used a balance transfer on them.
2). This is a cynical ploy to avoid meeting their obligations of supplying a companion ticket.

Rightly or wrongly I was not someone who cleared their balance every month but you can be sure they will not get another penny in interest from me. Once I have got the ticket I was after I will do a Super Balance transfer for as long as they will give me, put it in a high interest account then at the end of the period pay them off then dump them.

I would be interested if someone has another explanation for their hike.

dalliance

It happened to me and I posted the following here on the 19th.

I've had a Virgin CC at 10.9% for the past eighteen months. I occasionally keep a balance on it for a month or two and am happy with the rate. However, I received a letter this morning saying my rate was going to increase to 20.9% from next month.

To cut a long story short, I rang up and said I would be cancelling my card due to this increase. I was offered 15.9% but refused. The operator then spoke with her manager and I was offered 12.9% which I accepted.

I know this scenario will not be the same with everyone, but I think it's well worth ringing Virgin/MBNA if you receive a similar letter.