MSE News: Virgin Money offers 'free' case of wine on its credit cards: Is it...

tomxlisa

Well you sure do have plenty of credit there so shouldn't be too much of a problem for you and I won't be applying yet as I have to build my credit history for a while, and what is the multiple current account thing you mention?.

Pincher

gingercordial wrote: »

This means you don't qualify for the interest free period on purchases, and interest on those starts to run from the day you make the purchase to the day you make your payment.

That explains it, thanks.

gingercordial wrote: »

This is better than how things used to be when the payment would probably go towards the BT and not pay off the purchases, but still even though the payment now usually goes towards purchases first they will be racking up interest between the purchase date and payment date.

Just don't try to prevent this by paying off the purchases immediately (straight after buying) before they've appeared on a statement. Payments usually go to amounts that have appeared on a statement first, before anything more recent, and so those will end up clearing your BT rather than the new purchases if you don't wait for a statement. This means there's no way to avoid interest from at least the purchase date to the statement date.

It seems to be a battle of sneakiness on this one.


The statements usually appeared around 25th of each month, so I set up payment for 26th which should pay off the purchase and satisfy the monthly minimum. A couple of months ago, the statement appeared on the 29th! This meant the amount I paid in was used to reduce the 0% balance, and the purchase amount was not touched, so I had to make another payment on the 30th. Lost £300+ of the 0% balance, which I paid a balance transfer fee for.


The indentured servitude should have lasted two years or more, making 3% in a Santander 123 account, or 6% in a First Direct Regular Saver.

surfsister

Virgin Money has boosted its credit card range today, launching a limited-time offer for customers taking out new cards to get a free case of wine worth £50.

This offer has launched across most of Virgin Money's credit card range, including all of its balance transfer cards, though it's not as straightforward as just applying for the card and being sent the case of wine.

Related MSE Guides

Credit Card Freebies
£100 vouchers, free Europe flights etc

Cashback Credit Cards
5% cashback for first 3 months

Credit Card Rewards
Get flights, points, cashback & more

New cardholders will have to make £1,000-worth of either purchases, balance transfers or money transfers to qualify a question - i have no balance on a card so what and how do i do a money transfer??

Pincher

surfsister wrote: »

New cardholders will have to make £1,000-worth of either purchases, balance transfers or money transfers to qualify a question - i have no balance on a card so what and how do i do a money transfer??

You usually have three months to do the Balance Transfers.


Spend on other cards for three months.


I tend to pay for holidays by credit card, rather than debit card, even tough there is a credit card surcharge, because the credit card gives some extra protection. Well, there is a scrap between ATOL, the airline the credit card company, and possibly the Travel Insurance company, I suppose.

surfsister

thanks pincher appreciated

puk999

tomxlisa wrote: »

Well you sure do have plenty of credit there so shouldn't be too much of a problem for you and I won't be applying yet as I have to build my credit history for a while, and what is the multiple current account thing you mention?.

Sorry for delay, have been away for a few days.

The current account thing I mentioned is the way of getting decent interest on your cash savings. Savings accounts these days don't pay much, but there are some current accounts that pay much more. Trouble is they only pay interest on balances up to £2k or £2.5k, so if you have more savings than that, you need to open up accounts with many different providers.

There's also nice joining incentives to be had from some current accounts that I find too good to pass up, e.g. £150 from Clydesdale, £100 from First Direct. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts?_ga=1.118440458.2068299561.1373721996 for more info.

AlistairS

I also got declined for this card. I have a good credit history but in the last few weeks I got the Post Office Mastercard & transferred Banks to The Co-op. Would this be the reason for me being declined? The only reason I was applying was that I find the Post Office setup rather backward: Paper Statements, phone calls instead of secure messages. So I was going to bin the Post Office Card in favour of this one

J_Coutts

Virgin Credit Card - NO WINE!
I applied for the card via the website, was accepted and transferred a balance. I did everything correctly to obtain the wine incentive. However after not receiving an email about the wine I contacted Virgin and have been told I am not eligible for the wine as I applied through LoveMoney. I informed them I applied through the main Virgin website, I have never heard of LoveMoney and this must be some form of error on their part. They say that a code has been applied to my account which means that I applied through LoveMoney, again I have reiterated that there must be an error as I absolutely applied through the main Virgin money website. They are not budging and say that the Marketing team applied the codes and the staff on Customer Service don't even understand the codes. I have made a formal complaint but do not seem to be getting anywhere. Anyone else had similiar problems?

sheba

Sorry to hear that J Coutts, I've just come to say wine ordered, so obvs okay for us (applied for card via the mse emai). Hope you are able to sort it although it sounds like they are being a bit obstinate about the issue, to my mind as long as you took out the appropriate product and fulfilled the required 'spend' in the allotted timeframe, I think them arguing about which link you used is a bit arbitary-you were still pulled in by the offer?