Virginmoney regular saver - unable to open due to very poor service

eskbanker

nilrem wrote: »

Nope, Nowt to do with N/Rock the society I mentioned that wanted me to make an appointment was not them and it was before N/Rocks problems anyway.

Perhaps you didn't get the point I was making but I was quoting your post where you specifically said that building societies including Northern Rock "were delighted to open an account there and then for you" without appointments, and drawing the conclusion from that that their laxity may not have been a good thing, and that ultimately that may have been a factor in the more controlled regime that's in place these days....

EachPenny

aj23 wrote: »

This shows that more people want the Branch passbook based account instead of the online equivalent. I'd rather have the passbook.

I'm not sure that is really the case. For a lot of people the interest in the passbook-based account is the fact Virgin allow you to have both. If it were a case of either or, then I think it very likely the online version would be far more popular.

The online account allows you to do everything from the comfort of your own home, whereas the branch version requires at least two branch visits. I'm happy to do that because I have a branch nearby and visit the town regularly, so the 'cost' of operating the account is small. If I had to drive 30 miles to the nearest branch and pay for parking it is unlikely I'd have any interest in the account at all.

aj23 wrote: »

There are better Regular Savers out there than the Virgin Money ones.

But once you've got all the better ones then it makes sense to put money into the Virgin Money ones, rather than leaving the money earning <1.4% in an easy access account.

EachPenny

Westie983 wrote: »

I have had to make an appointment for all my accounts.
I rang as soon as issue 9 was launched and today was the first free appointment.

How did you find the process Westie? When I did mine I was told they have a new computer system. It seems more demanding than the old one, including for existing customers. I even failed the electronic ID check, that's a first for me

roxy28

If i am not getting virgin/lloyds mixed up last time i opened a savings account in branch they wanted to know income, outgoings etc. I wonderd if they got mixed up and thought i was after a mortgage.

TheShape

roxy28 wrote: »

If i am not getting virgin/lloyds mixed up last time i opened a savings account in branch they wanted to know income, outgoings etc. I wonderd if they got mixed up and thought i was after a mortgage.

The banks/building societies use the opening of a savings account as an opportunity to attempt to sell you as many other products as possible. It can be tedious when you just want to open an account and the 'adviser' starts asking if your saving for a house or a holiday so they can then try to sell you one of their mortgage products or travel insurance.

EachPenny

TheShape wrote: »

The banks/building societies use the opening of a savings account as an opportunity to attempt to sell you as many other products as possible. I can be tedious when you just want to open an account and the 'adviser' starts asking if your saving for a house or a holiday so they can then try to sell you one of their mortgage products or travel insurance.

Isn't it also part of 'Know Your Customer' though? Clearly if someone is saving a house purchase-size amount of money but declared they were 'saving for a holiday' that might be something the bank might see as an alarm bell.

Not that there is anything stopping the applicant mis-declaring the purpose of the savings, nor changing their mind subsequently, but it would give the regulators their box-ticking satisfaction if the customer has at least been asked what they intend to do with the money they are saving (as well as where it has come from of course).

ValiantSon

ashteadgirl wrote: »

Last week popped into local Virginmoney to open new regular saver. Unable to open as no appointment and only one member of trained staff staff looking after newbie. Branch completely empty while I had lengthy discussion that had 13 other virgin regular savers and never had to make appointment before. Apparently unable to open account on terminal in main area had to be done in back office and could not leave untrained staff alone. Understood this but queried why other staff had open previous accounts on terminals in main area. Decided to try to make appointment today - well what a joke! First appointment 7th February. I have never had such poor service - seems like Virginmoney has gone down hill. Thought the Virgin brand put customers first - well that is a laugh:mad::mad::mad:

I sympathise with your annoyance, but I'm not really sure why you thought, "the Virgin brand put customers first". I haven't seen anything that would suggest their customer service was better than anyone else.

I'm also not really sure why you are bothering with a Virgin Money regular saver. They are only offering 2.25%, which, on the maximum deposit of £250 p/m, will earn you £36.44. You could deposit the same amount into a regular saver with Nationwide, HSBC, or M&S and get 5%, earning you £80.64, or even put £300 p/m into a regular saver with First Direct at 5% (if you have that much to save) and earn £96.77.

ValiantSon

EachPenny wrote: »

Isn't it also part of 'Know Your Customer' though? Clearly if someone is saving a house purchase-size amount of money but declared they were 'saving for a holiday' that might be something the bank might see as an alarm bell.

I don't see how; you don't get asked these questions online. The purpose is to try and sell you more stuff. If asked questions like this on a savings account I say that it isn't any of their business and/or, I'm just saving

Some holdiays can cost as much as a house, so it doesn't really tell them anyway..

glider3560

ValiantSon wrote: »

I don't see how; you don't get asked these questions online. The purpose is to try and sell you more stuff. If asked questions like this on a savings account I say that it isn't any of their business and/or, I'm just saving

Some holdiays can cost as much as a house, so it doesn't really tell them anyway..

Virgin do ask this question online. There is a list of possible options and you can choose as many/few as you want. I always just tick "general savings" or "saving for a rainy day" or whatever option is most like that.

aj23_2

EachPenny wrote: »

I'm not sure that is really the case. For a lot of people the interest in the passbook-based account is the fact Virgin allow you to have both. If it were a case of either or, then I think it very likely the online version would be far more popular.

The online account allows you to do everything from the comfort of your own home, whereas the branch version requires at least two branch visits. I'm happy to do that because I have a branch nearby and visit the town regularly, so the 'cost' of operating the account is small. If I had to drive 30 miles to the nearest branch and pay for parking it is unlikely I'd have any interest in the account at all.


But once you've got all the better ones then it makes sense to put money into the Virgin Money ones, rather than leaving the money earning <1.4% in an easy access account.

Yes but I think Virgin Money is almost exclusive in allowing you both the Online and the Branch Regular Saver as they offer both options. Pretty much all Regular Savers by Building Societies are in branch, passbook based. Banks offer one which can be opened and managed either in store or online. No where else offers two regular savers which you can both of.

If you want to do everything from home like a hermit and not get exercise and go outside to go things, then thats great. A lot of people don't want to be doing stuff on the computer all the time where it can go wrong. Those people at home doing it are doing people out of jobs in branches, which means less income and spend productivity and less taxation collected, and lower level quality services which you then use and receive. We have a moral duty to use the high street. It's usually the people that do everything online who complain about it ironically.

Nearly every bank has a branch in a town, and all building societies do postal. You can even do it at the Post Office, and everywhere has those. So it's not that laborious. And walk, and don't drive.


If you have every other regular saver (which I doubt, as a lot of current account linked now), then yeah, use it. But you'd actually get more from 3, 4 or 5 year bonds or savings accounts as the Virgin Money Regular Saver is 12 months fixed term.