Virgin Bank - Terrible Service

Eye2013

Anyone else had problems ?

I opened a Defined Acess E-Saver two years ago, and despite interest rates increasing generally this has just been reduced to a paltry 0.5% !

This is a real pain because I have a large amount of money in the account that is my mothers - I manage as power of attorney. I visited the bank but most of their high interest rate accounts are online and you can't operate in the bank. I have never been sent a passbook and I will now have to pay a special visit to the bank with ID and documentation !

Moving away from Virgin for sure !

Thrugelmir

Eye2013 wrote: »

I have never been sent a passbook

Not the technology I expect Virgin to use.

Virgin's branch network was born out of the old Northern Rock branches. Not the coverage of the older established banks. Hence the focus on an online offering.

colsten

Eye2013 wrote: »

I opened a Defined Acess E-Saver two years ago, and despite interest rates increasing generally this has just been reduced to a paltry 0.5% !

you can find plenty of other banks and building societies which pay even more miserable interest rates. 0.5% is the BoE base rate. Having said this, two years ago it was still quite easy to get 3-4% on up to 50K.

Eye2013 wrote: »

This is a real pain because I have a large amount of money in the account that is my mothers - I manage as power of attorney. I visited the bank but most of their high interest rate accounts are online and you can't operate in the bank.

What is your complaint? That they don't offer all their accounts in branch? That they don't offer all their accounts online? You chose to open an account two years ago, presumably you did confirm then that the account features meet your needs?

Eye2013 wrote: »

I have never been sent a passbook and I will now have to pay a special visit to the bank with ID and documentation !

Did they perhaps send the passbook to your mother? Why did you not ask for the passbook two years ago? Why are you not using the online functionality to withdraw the money? Why are you complaining that Virgin want to see proof of ID and the PoA - would you rather they would give the money to anyone who says they are your mother's son?

Eye2013 wrote: »

Moving away from Virgin for sure !

Given all the questions above, I'm afraid I think there might be a possibility that Virgin won't be exactly sad to see the back of you.

ctdctd

My dealings with Virgin Money. all online, have been perfect.

I'd expect the ID requirements for a branch based POA account to be stringent and you can hardy call a non-market leading interest rate "poor service".

If you are the attorney and there is a large amount of money in the account, I'm surprised you didn't pick up the lack of a passbook earlier - do you not check balances and interest rates regularly?

Novice_investor101

I've had Virgin ISA's for about a year now. I say ISA's because in that time I've transferred into a new one either when the rate on my current one was cut or they introduced a new issue that had a higher rate.
It took minutes online & my account was opened in a day. & The account number even stayed the same. I have a branch in my city but have never had any need to use it. I find them really easy to deal with, but then all my dealings have been online.

WobblyDog

I have a number of Virgin savings accounts, and my (exclusively on-line) dealings with them have been positive so far. When I carelessly opened a Virgin cash ISA thinking it was a non-ISA account, they were able undo my mistake quickly without impacting my ISA allowance.

IanManc

Eye2013 wrote: »

Anyone else had problems ?

I opened a Defined Acess E-Saver two years ago, and despite interest rates increasing generally this has just been reduced to a paltry 0.5% !

This is a real pain because I have a large amount of money in the account that is my mothers - I manage as power of attorney. I visited the bank but most of their high interest rate accounts are online and you can't operate in the bank. I have never been sent a passbook and I will now have to pay a special visit to the bank with ID and documentation !

Moving away from Virgin for sure !

You say you opened a Defined Access E-Saver. That is an online account, so you operate it online, and you don't get a passbook.

Seeing you already have opened an online account, and so must have online access and the ability to operate accounts online, it is hard to see why most of their higher interest accounts being online - even if that is true - is a problem.

Somehow I can't imagine that Virgin will be sad to see you go.

firestone

Eye2013 wrote: »

Anyone else had problems ?

I opened a Defined Acess E-Saver two years ago, and despite interest rates increasing generally this has just been reduced to a paltry 0.5% !

This is a real pain because I have a large amount of money in the account that is my mothers - I manage as power of attorney. I visited the bank but most of their high interest rate accounts are online and you can't operate in the bank. I have never been sent a passbook and I will now have to pay a special visit to the bank with ID and documentation !

Moving away from Virgin for sure !

Think both forms of defined access saver(on-line & store etc) were cut by more then half at the same time to pay the same rate.There is now a new online version i believe for only 2 withdrawals as a sort of replacement.
But you should have been offered a a bond with your change of rate letter at 1.35% for One year as a special rate for switching out which maybe of use for some of the funds

adindas

If the interest rate drops quite significantly they must have sent you notification. I think your main mistake is that you do not review your interest rate regularly once in a year at least. All you need to do is to call either the branch where you open your ac or their head quarter.

They are within their right to reduce the interest rate of an account with flexible inteest rate.

I have more than 15 Saving account with Virgin Money both online and passbook account. I have account almost in any high street bank.
My personal experience is that their customer service is even better than some of the high street bank.

Eye2013 wrote: »

Anyone else had problems ?

I opened a Defined Acess E-Saver two years ago, and despite interest rates increasing generally this has just been reduced to a paltry 0.5% !

This is a real pain because I have a large amount of money in the account that is my mothers - I manage as power of attorney. I visited the bank but most of their high interest rate accounts are online and you can't operate in the bank. I have never been sent a passbook and I will now have to pay a special visit to the bank with ID and documentation !

Moving away from Virgin for sure !

G_M

You have an online account.

Virgin make it very easy (far easier than many banks!) to switch the account to a new higher-paying account they release.

Open new account online, transfer funds, close old account all in one go. No paperwork, no hassle.

As a POA you have a duty to keep up to date with what's happening to the money, not check every two years.....

Eye2013

There's a few ignorant comments on this thread I have to say.

My main gripe is that I set this account up as an 'invest and forget' into a market competitive rate. Virgin have only reduced the rate to make profit from other people who don't notice the rate or are too lazy to switch. Other banks do this too but that's no excuse.

I have never used online access for this account - not needed to, although I think the original application was online I then had to visit the branch to set it up (with a bank teller that didn't seem to understand Power of Attorney). It is the bank who are now advising I have to revisit with a passbook even though they've never sent me one (I will take the latest statement instead). I am also annoyed about having to make a special journey to transfer the money just because they've altered the rate.

The good news is I'm going to switch to NS&I Bonds which should yield an extra £1.5k or so per annum on the six figure sum invested,