Virgin 0% purchase offer

bluedove

I have a virgin C.C with outstanding 0% BT balance on it which is due to end in june 2011.

I just received a letter for a new 0% on purchase untill august 2011, for any purchases of £250 and above, between now and january 31st 2011.

I'M thinking of using the card for xmas spending only and pay off the bill before august.

I called the contact centre, the chap i spoke to said i won't be charged any interest if my purchases are before 31st jan 2011 and also i pay off the full balance before august 2011 statement date.

Im still apprehensive of this cos of the horror stories of people who use BT cards for purchases and get charged interes on both the BT and purchase.

Any one here who has receive the same offer?

fozmcfc

I have the same offer, but mine is until 30th November and will end in June 2011.

Basically if you have a zero balance, providing you pay at least the minimum each month (i.e. you can't pay nothing till July, then pay it all off in one go), then it's a very good offer and that's exactly how it work is how you have been told.

Of course, if you already have a balance or make any other purchases smaller than £250 then of course these will attract interest. BUT..because they have changed the way your payments are allocated towards the balance, if you do make small purchases or have a balance already, then your payment will go towards them first.

So E.G, you make a purchase for £300, you then make a purchase for £100, or have £100 outstanding at the moment. You make a payment to your card for £50, then it would come off the £100. But then you would of course still be charged interest on the £50 only.

To keep things simple it is best to just make purchases of over £250 and then you do have until August to pay them off interest free.

If you do make smaller purchases as well, make sure you pay the full amount of those small purchases to avoid all interests.

Whilst it may look complicated, it isn't it is really as simple as you want to make it.

---

Finally you might also have a further offer for interest free purchases under £250 I do and mine ends March.

Now this is where Virgin (MBNA) are sneaky, because, if I make a purchase of £300 and a purchase of £200 for example, the payments you make go towards the offer finishing LAST i.e. the June one.

So come March if I have made payments of say £300, I will be charged interest on the £200 purchase from that point.

bluedove

I have £600 outstanding from £1500 BT in january this year, that is due to expire in june 2011.

I can't see my self doing a bulk £250 purchase, but i know that i will spend a bit more than £250 on xmas shopping between now and xmas eve.

Hence by January i will probably have about £900 outstanding on the card, i dont intend to use it again after xmas, just hide it away and pay off full balance before August 2011.

fozmcfc

bluedove wrote: »

I have £600 outstanding from £1500 BT in january this year, that is due to expire in june 2011.

I can't see my self doing a bulk £250 purchase, but i know that i will spend a bit more than £250 on xmas shopping between now and xmas eve.

Hence by January i will probably have about £900 outstanding on the card, i dont intend to use it again after xmas, just hide it away and pay off full balance before August 2011.

The offer you have means only purchases in one transcation of £250 + are 0% free. You can't make several seperate transcations which add up to over £250.

bluedove

Below is a copy of the letter from virgin

[FONT=&quot]Your new 0% [/FONT]p.a. [FONT=&quot]Virgin Credit Card promotional card purchase rate [/FONT]
We've some good news; you now get 0% p.a. on all new card purchases you make with your Virgin Credit Card
before 31 January 2011.
Spend over £250 before 31 January 2011 and enjoy a great rate of 0% p. a on those purchases until your November 2011 statement date.»
For any individual card purchases you make up to £250 before 31 January 2011 you can enjoy a special rate of
0% p.a. on those purchases until your August 2011 statement date
At the end of these promotional periods the rate on any card purchase you've made during these periods will go back
to your standard rate for card purchases.
[FONT=&quot]Let others share your 0% p.a. rate [/FONT]
All card holders on your account get the same 0% p.a. deal. So, [FONT=&quot]i[/FONT][FONT=&quot]f [/FONT]you have given a card to your partner or members
of your Family, they can enjoy these great rates too. Remember, you can add up to 3 people to your account."?"
Simply visit myvirginmoney.com
Kind regards

P.S. Don't Forget we've made your card even better - your payments will now go towards-paying off the highest
interest rate balances first. This means you can use your Virgin Credit Card for everything from balance transfers to
everyday spending, without losing the benefits of any promotional rate you may have.
Promotional rates will no longer apply from the beginning of any statement period during which you have breached your terms and conditions.
When your promotional rate ends the standard rate for card purchases will apply. To view your standard rate you can look at your statement or it can be viewed when you log in to your account online at myvirginmoney.com under the 'Summary' tab.
If you have two or more promotional offers at the same rate, we will use your payments to reduce any promotional balance which has the earliest start date First.
IF you have two or more promotional offers at the same rate and they start on the same date, we will use your payments to reduce any promotional balance with the lowest standard rate last, even [FONT=&quot]if [/FONT]this offer ends first.
This could mean that any such balance may not have been reduced by the time the standard rate applies to it.
Any additional cardholder(s) must reside at the same primary address, and have a relationship of close family member (defined as; spouse, child, parent, sibling or domestic partner).

"Your "statement date" is the date your statement is produced and not your payment due date.

MBNA's consumer credit activities are licensed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and MBNA's general insurance activities are
authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

fozmcfc

So basically you have 0% on ALL purchases before 31st January 2011.

Those which are under £250 will attract interest from August 2011 and those which are over £250 will attract interest from November 2011.

So going by what you said earlier on 31st January 2011, you'll have something like this.

£600 balance transfer outstanding at 0% until June statement.

£300 purchases (made up of no individual purchases of £250 or more) 0% until August statement.

Providing you pay £600 by your June statement date and the other £300 by the August statement date you will pay no interest.

This is because the 2 promotional rates are the same i.e. 0%. The payments you make go towards the promotion that started earliest i.e. the 0% balance transfer.

You must however pay the £600 off by the June statement date, because interest is charged daily. So for instances say your June statement is produced on the 10th, you pay the final £50, of the £600 on the 18th June, you would be charged 8 days interest on £50.

Same with the 0% purchases, if your statement is produced on the 10th August and you paid off the final £50 of the £300 owing on the 18th August, you would be charged 8 days interest on the £50.

thenudeone

Any one here who has receive the same offer?[/QUOTE]

See post no. 30 on the thread entitled "Credit card shake-up begins with MBNA payment overhaul News Discussion" which discusses the effect of their recent change in payment allocation. (MSE will not allow me to post a link to their own site!!!)

In summary: Before using the offer, you need to carefully check which of the two 0% offers would be cleared if you used it and then made a large payment in June. The payment would not necessarily be applied to the offer with the June end date!