Warning about 0% balance transfers to Virgin credit cards

marieofnie

I will be coming to the end of a 0% balance transfer and 2.9% purchase deal with Virgin at the end of this month. This morning I received an alarming letter informing me that as of August my new interest rate would be 34.9% APR!!!!!! Thinking that this must be a mistake as the variable interest rate was 16.9% when I applied for the card I contacted them and was told that I would be charged this rate as of august or could opt out and pay a lower rate (now 29.9% not 16.9%???) but have my account suspended until the balance was paid off. They could offer no explanation as to why this was this case especially given I have a good credit history, never made a late payment, always pay more than the minimum payment and have had no change in circumstances.

I would probably get a better deal from a loan shark at 34.9% but thankfully I have been able to transfer my balance to other cards. However, if this is their standard practice at the end of a deal period I fear that some people may not be able to transfer and be stung with the interest so please bear this in mind before transfering.

Hope this is helpful xx

_Andy_

There have been numerous threads on the same subject.

td_007

The 0% deals are essentially a honey trap and the card companies hope that you will not be able to move the outstanding amount at the end of the deal so that they can whack on large interest.

If this continues, the only advantage of such cards will be for stoozing....if one can decent savings rate!

p00hsticks

Virgin is part of MBNA, who seem to be desparately trying to get rid of customers at the moment - they closed my two cards with them because I hadn't used either in the last year....