Virgin Money Current Account

pafpcg

hoc said:

So is the consensus here that this account is more trouble than it's worth? I was interested mainly because of the tied instant savings account but scrolling through these pages I see mostly complaints. I've used Virgin before for savings accounts and not had issues, is the cause of current account troubles related to the merger?

You've made the assumption that the products & services offered by "Virgin Money" are all being offered by the same organisation! 

Virgin Money has its origins in two separate organisations:
 - Clydesdale Bank (and its subsidiary Yorkshire Bank), a old, well-established Scottish bank based in Clydebank but which hasn't been able grow under the guidance of its Australian owner who eventually decided to cut it loose.
- Northern Rock Building Society, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  which de-mutualised into a bank but got too ambitious and failed in the 2008 financial crisis.  Northern Rock was bought out and renamed itself "Virgin Money" offering savings and mortgages.

A couple of years ago, Clydesdale decided to buy "Virgin Money" (the savings outfit) and rebrand the merged company as "Virgin Money" (paying the bearded one a large sum of money to use the Virgin name). 

The new Virgin Money Current Account is a product of Clydesdale Bank and NOT the Newcastle-based savings operation, so your experience with the ex-Northern Rock savings products should not carry any weight when deciding whether to open the new Virgin Money Current account.  I have accounts from both parts of Virgin Money - I'd have no inclination to maintain accounts with either of them unless there's a compelling reason, usually an attractive interest rate.  The new Virgin Money current account operates exactly as the old Clydesdale Direct current accounts which are best described as "different" - the interface and way of working seems alien, but once you become familiar with it, I'm sure it's just as effective as all the other current accounts from LBG, HSBC, RBS, Santander etc.  But as the majority of my banking is with LBG etc, I use the Clydesdale part of Virgin Money as little as possible - I find the security checks, especially the dratted code-generating keypad, burdensome which are required for all but the most trivial external transactions.

Time will allow us to judge whether the merged Virgin Money will improve its products and become competitive.  Right now, they are trying to buy customers which obviously won't be viable in the long-term.

Archi_Bald

pafpcg said:

 I find the security checks, especially the dratted code-generating keypad, burdensome which are required for all but the most trivial external transactions.

I didn't need to use any keypad like I had to with my old Yorkshire Bank account. Logging into online banking requires approval via the Virgin current account app. I only used the app to set up payees and make payments. That was much more straight forward than with the old YB account. Overall, I do agree, the account is 'different'.

MovingForwards

hoc said:

So is the consensus here that this account is more trouble than it's worth? I was interested mainly because of the tied instant savings account but scrolling through these pages I see mostly complaints. I've used Virgin before for savings accounts and not had issues, is the cause of current account troubles related to the merger?

I've both current accounts plus a few savings accounts, therefore using both of their platforms, plus I have their S&S ISA and have done for many years now.

There's no complaints from me in all the years I've been using the Virgin brand. I've even looked at Clydesdale and what they offer because of how I'm finding the new current account.

My 'main' bank account isn't Virgin, the 'main' account is merely used as an account to receive wages and pay bills although I do have a couple of savings accounts left over from when I was saving my mortgage deposit etc. I am tempted, having had the new current, to have Virgin as my main account and the other as the secondary account.

I'm guessing the niggles have been sorted out, as mine works as they describe it to.

Eco_Miser

pafpcg said:

A couple of years ago, Clydesdale decided to buy "Virgin Money" (the savings outfit) and rebrand the merged company as "Virgin Money" (paying the bearded one a large sum of money to use the Virgin name). 

That's one way of putting it. I prefer to say that Virgin Money took over Clydesdale by swapping its shares for CYBG ones, then renaming CYBG Plc (the owner of Clydesdale Bank) as Virgin Money Plc, while the Virgin Money Bank (the former Northern Rock) became a trading name of Clydesdale Bank

pafpcg

pafpcg said: "A couple of years ago, Clydesdale decided to buy "Virgin Money" (the savings outfit) and rebrand the merged company as "Virgin Money" (paying the bearded one a large sum of money to use the Virgin name)." 
Eco_Miser said:
That's one way of putting it. I prefer to say that Virgin Money took over Clydesdale by swapping its shares for CYBG ones, then renaming CYBG Plc (the owner of Clydesdale Bank) as Virgin Money Plc, while the Virgin Money Bank (the former Northern Rock) became a trading name of Clydesdale Bank

Yes!  I prefer your explanation too - because it makes even less sense than mine!

hoc

So are the complaints relating to a technical or corporate nature? For example the frequently raised issues with opening accounts and verifying ID. I'm aware the current account is a new product with aspects of platform and customer service relating to the merger, that is why I asked this precisely in the first place. I'm not overly interested in the history itself, only in the practicality in the here and now.

RG2015

Eco_Miser said:

pafpcg said:

A couple of years ago, Clydesdale decided to buy "Virgin Money" (the savings outfit) and rebrand the merged company as "Virgin Money" (paying the bearded one a large sum of money to use the Virgin name). 

That's one way of putting it. I prefer to say that Virgin Money took over Clydesdale by swapping its shares for CYBG ones, then renaming CYBG Plc (the owner of Clydesdale Bank) as Virgin Money Plc, while the Virgin Money Bank (the former Northern Rock) became a trading name of Clydesdale Bank

And just to further muddy the waters the account appears on my Experian and TransUnion credit reports as Yorkshire Bank.

where_are_we

hoc said:

So are the complaints relating to a technical or corporate nature? For example the frequently raised issues with opening accounts and verifying ID. I'm aware the current account is a new product with aspects of platform and customer service relating to the merger, that is why I asked this precisely in the first place. I'm not overly interested in the history itself, only in the practicality in the here and now.

My OH had no problem opening an account  - she already was a Virgin Money customer and had no Yorkshire or Clydesdale history.

My experience of opening an account was very different - although already a Virgin Money customer I had previously taken advantage of a current account switch offer to a B (Yorkshire bank) account which I then switched to Santander taking advantage of their amazon voucher offer. Their systems recognised me as previous Yorkshire Bank customer and I had to give loggin details for the B account, records of which I couldn`t find. Despite phone calls I was still unable to open an account. A few days later I was tidying up my paperwork and found the vital username and password for the old B account and from then on it was easy. So practically speaking the history was important!   

Archi_Bald

RG2015 said:

Eco_Miser said:

pafpcg said:

A couple of years ago, Clydesdale decided to buy "Virgin Money" (the savings outfit) and rebrand the merged company as "Virgin Money" (paying the bearded one a large sum of money to use the Virgin name). 

That's one way of putting it. I prefer to say that Virgin Money took over Clydesdale by swapping its shares for CYBG ones, then renaming CYBG Plc (the owner of Clydesdale Bank) as Virgin Money Plc, while the Virgin Money Bank (the former Northern Rock) became a trading name of Clydesdale Bank

And just to further muddy the waters the account appears on my Experian and TransUnion credit reports as Yorkshire Bank.

I can add to the muddy waters - my Virgin Money account is shown as a Clydesdale Bank account in my Transunion report. I haven't checked Experian - presumably it's the same there.

ischris85

Archi_Bald said:

RG2015 said:

Eco_Miser said:

pafpcg said:

A couple of years ago, Clydesdale decided to buy "Virgin Money" (the savings outfit) and rebrand the merged company as "Virgin Money" (paying the bearded one a large sum of money to use the Virgin name). 

That's one way of putting it. I prefer to say that Virgin Money took over Clydesdale by swapping its shares for CYBG ones, then renaming CYBG Plc (the owner of Clydesdale Bank) as Virgin Money Plc, while the Virgin Money Bank (the former Northern Rock) became a trading name of Clydesdale Bank

And just to further muddy the waters the account appears on my Experian and TransUnion credit reports as Yorkshire Bank.

I can add to the muddy waters - my Virgin Money account is shown as a Clydesdale Bank account in my Transunion report. I haven't checked Experian - presumably it's the same there.

Same here.