Virgin Money - Suspended Account Advice

sueh6

Some time ago I agreed with Virgin for my account to be frozen and to opt out of the rate rise; I was advised at the time that once my card was paid off I could always contact them and ask for it to be reactivated if that's what I wanted.

My card is now clear (yeahh!!) but after a telephone call with an agent I was told that it would automatically be closed and to reapply - she said I could do this straight away without waiting to reapply.

Is this correct? I was hoping to keep the card open as have found that their existing customer offers are pretty good and regular and don't fancy an application on my credit file. Do you think I should just ring back and try another agent?

[Deleted User]

This is what happens (or should happen) when you opt out of an increase. You either misheard or were misinformed. You'll need to reapply.

Curr946

Agreed. When you opt out your are in effect closing the account for spending. So when the balance is clear, you would need to reapply.

crimson_snowflake

MBNA's terms are different from other lenders, in that, when they give the option to opt out of a rate increase, they suspend the account rather than close it and do say that there is an option to reactivate the account (at the higher interest rate) at a later date.
However, perhaps they withdraw this option and automatically close the account as soon as the account balance reaches zero.
Has anyone tried to reactivate a suspended MBNA account before the balance reaches zero?