Virgin Credit Card - A rant and a warning

jwbrown83

Hi everyone, first post here and i'm having a rant / providing a warning about Virgin Credit Cards.

I applied for a Virgin Credit Card back in September of last year to transfer some oustanding debt from my EGG card, approved, no problem, money transferred, standing order for repayments set up, Sorted.

Yesterday I got a phone call from a collections company in India informing me the account was £184 in arrears, they provided little information as to why this had happened so I rang Virgin for some clarification.

Turns out my standing order payment arrived less than 24hours late in January. This leaves my account on my payday which is the 21st and isn't usually due until the 25th but apparently Virgin have fluctuating due dates - something i've never encountered before with any other account.

Due paying the amount straight away, this 'violation' means I have lost the promotional 0% rate. MBNA who I phoned today have been less than helpful, refusing to even consider looking at the charges or reinstate the rate despite this being a honest mistake and me acting quickly to resolve this as soon as I was informed there was a problem. I concede I should check my online statements regularly but seeing as I wasn't spending on the card and making the regular required payments I didn't feel this was that necessary.


In short, Virgin Credit Cards provide disgusting service, I've done everything I can to correct this and i'm no better off, beware. Can anyone recommend good 0% or low rate card I could transfer to?

Dabooka

Is it a standing order and not a DD you have? If not, might be worth changing it then it;s on them.

With regards to the 0%, I've read on here that quite a few people have had good luck in having it re-instated ONCE, so got to be worth a shout again (although I don't know if outstanding balance, spend etc has anything to do with it).

Good luck

Any

The dates of statement and due dates are variable... This is not the first company to differ them at all, sometimes it's done just because the weekends get in the way of working days, sometimes it's more dramatic change (Barclaycard is known to vary the dates by up to days).

If you set up DD or read the due date on the statement this wouldn't have happened. SO is NOT protection against late payment.

miss_missy

hi
have to agree with Any you really need to have DD set up.
can i ask why you didnt set up a DD?
Also as Any also said payment due dates do change depending on how many days in the month usually
my MBNA statement date is always the 10th however my payment date changes its normally around the 27-30 however feb was 25
you always should check the statement if you dont use DD

Dabooka

There you have it, looks like DD gets the vote as suspected.

jwbrown

Because ironically enough I had issues in the past with Direct Debits mysteriously being terminated so was a little wary, only to have ti come back and bite me in the !!!!!

Oh well, the warning about their harsh tactics still stands, don't cross Mr Branson!

miss_missy

jwbrown wrote: »

Because ironically enough I had issues in the past with Direct Debits mysteriously being terminated so was a little wary, only to have ti come back and bite me in the !!!!!

Oh well, the warning about their harsh tactics still stands, don't cross Mr Branson!

hi again
the dd that you say were mysteriously terminated had they been used in within the last 12 months? as they are usually stopped if they havent been used

also you havent really warned anyone about any harsh tactics as you didnt pay on time so you lost your offer i think youll find most cards do exactly the same and mr branson has nothing to do with it

however as someone has already said if you call MBNA up and are polite and explain your mistake you might well get your offer reinstated as others have in the past

lazer

miss_missy wrote: »

hi again
the dd that you say were mysteriously terminated had they been used in within the last 12 months? as they are usually stopped if they havent been used

also you havent really warned anyone about any harsh tactics as you didnt pay on time so you lost your offer i think youll find most cards do exactly the same and mr branson has nothing to do with it

however as someone has already said if you call MBNA up and are polite and explain your mistake you might well get your offer reinstated as others have in the past

Do you they give you notice the direct debits are bieng stopped, I have all my credit card set up on direct debit and rarely use any off of them - so there is a good chance that the direct debit won't have come out in a year?

izools

I feel the overwhelming winner, which I have used all my adult life, is the weekly standing order.

This has several benefits:

> Small chunks each payment so easier to budget for coming to the end of the month
> Irrespective of when the statement date is, it is inevitable that atleast three of the payments will fall into one billing period so you won't get fees / cancelled offers
> Interest is calculated daily, so paying £15 a week results in less interest than paying £60 after 28 days
> You are in control of the amount and frequency and don't have to rely on the third party company to request collection of the funds (a 'la DD)

I pay my Barclaycard by weekly standing order and it works a treat Never cared when my statement date is, not been an issue, as atleast 75% of the monthly payments fall into a billing cycle.

miss_missy

lazer sorry not sure whether they tell you ive just read on here that the dd only last so long when not used so someone else maybe able to help you

izools have to say i like your way of working i do most of my cc payments manually usually 2 or 3 smaller payments and 1 min payment over the month but have to say i like the idea of the weekly standing order thanks for that tip

jwbrown83

miss_missy wrote: »

mr branson has nothing to do with it

Oh good lord that was a joke.

And yes it was regularly being used, and when it was finally corrected it was set up so the card was sending money to an account and not the other way around.

Anyway, I think i'm going to shut up now and say no more on this matter, sorry to bother you all.