Of all the cheek! (Virgin Credit Card)

princess*daisy

I received a letter over the weekend from Virgin Money, stating that as of October they are increasing my APR from 16.6% to 24.9%! What a massive rip off! Fair enough a couple of per cent, but a whopping 8.3% takes the biscuit :mad:

Anyway, the letter says that I have the option to opt out of the new interest changes and remain at the old rate - however, I will not be able to use the card and the account will be closed once my balance reaches zero. I never use the card anyway, and their utter greed has peed me right off, so I was thinking of pursuing this option. However, I'm worried that it will somehow affect my credit rating - will it? Advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Savvy_Spender_South

should not affect your rating as you will still meet the payments on the contract terms you originally signed. They have to offer the opt out after the recent (09) shake up of credit consumer rights on higher APR charges.

Get the Airmiles card, fly for free just for signing up!

princess*daisy

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated :beer: I'm definitely going to opt out then. In a way I should thank them really as this has made me even more determined to become debt free, and they sure as hell aren't going to get an extra penny more out of me than they would have done already!

The_Boss

Yoy say you never use the card anyway - presume it has a zero balance? If so, just cancel it now rather than wait.

Savvy_Spender_South

you could apply for TESCO card, 0% for 12 months on balance transfers for a 2% fee, save 14.9% for the remaining time, plus club card points to boot woo hoo.

princess*daisy

The_Boss wrote: »

Yoy say you never use the card anyway - presume it has a zero balance? If so, just cancel it now rather than wait.

No, it has £800 on it - it's a card I took out to take advantage of a 0% balance transfer some time ago, but I cut up the card straight away and never spent on it.

Savvy Spender - thanks for the advice but I've just applied for the Barclaycard 0% for 16 months. The Tesco one looks good but unfortunately I don't shop there!

littledisey

Virgin Amex did this to me last year, raised it from 14.9% to 24% I think. I immediately opted out of the rate jack and have just kept paying it off. I have about £10K on it so am viewing it now as a personal loan (albeit it at a pretty high interest rate !!!) and once its paid it will close

I think what !!!!es me off the most is that all the card companies do this when they review your credit reports and if they think you using too much credit they assume you must be getting into difficulty so they raise your rate - effectively making it harder than it already is. So their ethos seems to be when you might need a bit of a help, lets make it worse by increasing the rate !

fozmcfc

TBH, what did you expect, you've used it for the 0% offer and you haven't spent on it either. Stands to reason Virgin might be trying to get a bit of money from you.

I did exactly the same as you and am very pleased Virgin gave me the chance to sort myself out. Luckily I did manage to clear to nil, before the 0% run out. I still haven't and possibly will never spend on it, so I expect I too will eventually get a letter.

Glad to see you are transferring again hopefully, BT and 0% purchases certainly have helped me greatly in the past few years, just wish I have been more savvy in the years before.

Good Luck.

YorkshireBoy

Savvy_Spender_South wrote: »

you could apply for TESCO card, 0% for 12 months on balance transfers for a 2% fee

It's now 9 months for a 2.9% fee.

plus club card points to boot woo hoo.

Although not on BTs...only on purchases.

Degenerate

fozmcfc wrote: »

TBH, what did you expect, you've used it for the 0% offer and you haven't spent on it either. Stands to reason Virgin might be trying to get a bit of money from you.

One would think they were making a fair bit of money at the pre-existing 16.6% rate.

michaelvintner

Typical MBNA (they run the Virgin credit card) dirty trick. They do not even have the decency to mug you face to face, they sneak up behind you punch you in the back and steal your wallet. Rubbish company better off as far away as possible from them.

I am really glad you did not spend on the card, that was a very good decisision. You have save yourself a fortune. Tell them to get stuff MBNA are pond life.