Why is MSE recommending Virgin Money?

BonniePilot

 Was considering  changing my current account to Virgin Money which is promoted on this site until I checked with Trust Pilot and saw that 89% of all customer reviews rated it as either Poor or Bad! I'm surprised there is no comment on this from MSE? 

RG2015

Can you advise where MSE is recommending Virgin Money? I have not seen this anywhere on the site.

All MSE have done is to say that the current account pays 2% interest on balances up to £1,000. This is a stating a fact, and is neither recommending nor promoting Virgin Money..

Also I would not expect MSE to comment on reviews on another site. That would be unethical and beyond the remit of MSE.

colsten

MSE doesn't recommend accounts. They just provide a guide that helps you compare the top-picks in terms of interest / switch bonus / overdrafts /cashback / insurance.

Trustpilot would be at the very bottom of my list of places to look for opinions about bank accounts. You are free to use Trustpilot as your guide if you prefer.

There is a long thread about the Virgin Money current account, by actual users (incl myself), on this forum: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77433262

surreysaver

If you do go with Virgin Money, don't close your existing account, or switch any payments, until it is up and running 

colsten

surreysaver said:

If you do go with Virgin Money, don't close your existing account, or switch any payments, until it is up and running 

That applies to switching to any account. You should only ever switch once you have full access to your new account - i.e. full online and app access, debit card and PIN. 

In addition, it's not a good idea to switch your only account, mainly because it's a good idea to have more than one current account in the first instance. 

grumiofoundation

As above MSE doesn't recommend/promote anything.

Using trustpilot reviews for financial institutions is always going to be misleading. Who reviews their bank when they dont have an issue?

First Direct (often top/near top of customer service polls) is 68% bad/poor
Interestingly Barclays and Natwest also 89% bad/poor! nationwide bucking the trend at 87%.

[Deleted User]

This only significant comment MSE made was mentioning that TSB had massive tech issues.
Definitely don't switch switch until you've tried you new provider and ideally keep at least two separate current accounts...