Is Virgin Money at risk of operational failure?

p00hsticks

pafpcg said:

Molehusband said:

........
One of the complications with Virgin Money is, as their website says:
"We're not like other banks. Discover what makes us different."
One of the differences is ownership and who exactly is running it. Some years ago they took over Northern Rock and I assumed their staff was then running my account on behalf of Virgin. Then, more recently, Virgin entered some form of partnership with Clydesdale Bank and I get the impression that many Virgin Money accounts are run by them. I'm never quite sure exactly who is actually operating my Virgin Money account.

Virgin Money is now owned entirely by Clydesdale Bank PLC - it was taken over several years ago.  For marketing reasons Clydesdale then decided to re-brand itself as Virgin Money (and paid Branson a considerable fee to continue to use the "Virgin" name).  Like many organisations which have grown by mergers and acquisitions, the products & services are supported at various sites making it difficult to get consistency - unless you regard ALL Virgin Money's services to be universally poor!  Originally, the savings products were operated by the 'old' Virgin Money (aka Northern Rock) based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the banking products by Clydesdale based in Clydebank.  Nowadays, I share your uncertainty about where and who is running my Virgin Money accounts.

Yorkshire Bank also got added into the mix and rebranded  a few years back....

[Deleted User]

p00hsticks said:

pafpcg said:

Molehusband said:

........
One of the complications with Virgin Money is, as their website says:
"We're not like other banks. Discover what makes us different."
One of the differences is ownership and who exactly is running it. Some years ago they took over Northern Rock and I assumed their staff was then running my account on behalf of Virgin. Then, more recently, Virgin entered some form of partnership with Clydesdale Bank and I get the impression that many Virgin Money accounts are run by them. I'm never quite sure exactly who is actually operating my Virgin Money account.

Virgin Money is now owned entirely by Clydesdale Bank PLC - it was taken over several years ago.  For marketing reasons Clydesdale then decided to re-brand itself as Virgin Money (and paid Branson a considerable fee to continue to use the "Virgin" name).  Like many organisations which have grown by mergers and acquisitions, the products & services are supported at various sites making it difficult to get consistency - unless you regard ALL Virgin Money's services to be universally poor!  Originally, the savings products were operated by the 'old' Virgin Money (aka Northern Rock) based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the banking products by Clydesdale based in Clydebank.  Nowadays, I share your uncertainty about where and who is running my Virgin Money accounts.

Yorkshire Bank also got added into the mix and rebranded  a few years back....

Yorkshire Bank was dissolved years ago.
It's been Clydesdale Bank trading name since 2001. 

pafpcg

Deleted_User said:

p00hsticks said:

pafpcg said:

Molehusband said:

........
One of the complications with Virgin Money is, as their website says:
"We're not like other banks. Discover what makes us different."
One of the differences is ownership and who exactly is running it. Some years ago they took over Northern Rock and I assumed their staff was then running my account on behalf of Virgin. Then, more recently, Virgin entered some form of partnership with Clydesdale Bank and I get the impression that many Virgin Money accounts are run by them. I'm never quite sure exactly who is actually operating my Virgin Money account.

Virgin Money is now owned entirely by Clydesdale Bank PLC - it was taken over several years ago.  For marketing reasons Clydesdale then decided to re-brand itself as Virgin Money (and paid Branson a considerable fee to continue to use the "Virgin" name).  Like many organisations which have grown by mergers and acquisitions, the products & services are supported at various sites making it difficult to get consistency - unless you regard ALL Virgin Money's services to be universally poor!  Originally, the savings products were operated by the 'old' Virgin Money (aka Northern Rock) based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the banking products by Clydesdale based in Clydebank.  Nowadays, I share your uncertainty about where and who is running my Virgin Money accounts.

Yorkshire Bank also got added into the mix and rebranded  a few years back....

Yorkshire Bank was dissolved years ago.
It's been Clydesdale Bank trading name since 2001. 

No it wasn't!  Yorkshire Bank has indeed been a subsidiary of Clydesdale Bank PLC for quite some time but it's still trading - doesn't it still have YB-branded branches in Leeds and elsewhere in its Yorkshire heartland?  If you take a look at the "small print" at the foot of the current Virgin Money letterhead, you'll see the following: "Clydesdale Bank PLC (which also trades as Yorkshire Bank, B and Virgin Money) is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and ....."

PS: I didn't include a reference to Yorkshire Bank in my earlier post, which p00hsticks rightly picked me up on, because it just added another layer of confusion to an already complicated situation...

phillw

pafpcg said:
No it wasn't!  Yorkshire Bank has indeed been a subsidiary of Clydesdale Bank PLC for quite some time but it's still trading - doesn't it still have YB-branded branches in Leeds and elsewhere in its Yorkshire heartland?

Certainly they appear to have said they were going to rebrand them all, https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/06/cyldesdale-and-yorkshire-bank-to-rebrand-as-virgin-money-by-the-/

Maybe they changed their mind, or it was delayed by the pandemic?

EarthBoy

pafpcg said:

Deleted_User said:

p00hsticks said:

pafpcg said:

Molehusband said:

........
One of the complications with Virgin Money is, as their website says:
"We're not like other banks. Discover what makes us different."
One of the differences is ownership and who exactly is running it. Some years ago they took over Northern Rock and I assumed their staff was then running my account on behalf of Virgin. Then, more recently, Virgin entered some form of partnership with Clydesdale Bank and I get the impression that many Virgin Money accounts are run by them. I'm never quite sure exactly who is actually operating my Virgin Money account.

Virgin Money is now owned entirely by Clydesdale Bank PLC - it was taken over several years ago.  For marketing reasons Clydesdale then decided to re-brand itself as Virgin Money (and paid Branson a considerable fee to continue to use the "Virgin" name).  Like many organisations which have grown by mergers and acquisitions, the products & services are supported at various sites making it difficult to get consistency - unless you regard ALL Virgin Money's services to be universally poor!  Originally, the savings products were operated by the 'old' Virgin Money (aka Northern Rock) based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the banking products by Clydesdale based in Clydebank.  Nowadays, I share your uncertainty about where and who is running my Virgin Money accounts.

Yorkshire Bank also got added into the mix and rebranded  a few years back....

Yorkshire Bank was dissolved years ago.
It's been Clydesdale Bank trading name since 2001. 

No it wasn't!  Yorkshire Bank has indeed been a subsidiary of Clydesdale Bank PLC for quite some time but it's still trading - doesn't it still have YB-branded branches in Leeds and elsewhere in its Yorkshire heartland?  

No it doesn't.  All the branches, even in its Yorkshire heartland, have been rebranded as Virgin Money.

anotheruser

subjecttocontract said:

Richard  Branson must be furious......I would be if I were him !
They are not the only organisation benefiting from using the Virgin name who have worse than awful customer service...... Virgin Media are equally atrocious.

Having said that I am currently transferring an ISA to Virgin Money.

Why?
He's built his brand and sold it and continues to do so.
Once it leaves his hands, he doesn't need to care.

janetmw

I have just opened a Virgin Money M Plus Current account in order to take advantage of their fee free foreign transactions.

I thought the interest rates looked quite attractive for my circumstances, so decided to transfer my old Virgin ISA to their new one paying a much higher rate.

Having gone through all form filling online I was told there was a problem and that I should contact them. I didn't fancy being on hold on the phone or sending the form off, so I visited their local branch in person with a completed form. The person in branch couldn't have been more helpful explaining why there was a problem.  (The old ISA is on a different platform to the new one.) She took my form to scan and upload to the transfer department. I was then told because of a backlog it could take up to 20 days to go through. Today, one day after branch visit, I have had a text message stating the transfer has been done. Checking on the app, the money is there!

Hopefully Virgin Money continue to be as helpful.

eskbanker

anotheruser said:

subjecttocontract said:

Richard  Branson must be furious......I would be if I were him !
They are not the only organisation benefiting from using the Virgin name who have worse than awful customer service...... Virgin Media are equally atrocious.

Having said that I am currently transferring an ISA to Virgin Money.

Why?
He's built his brand and sold it and continues to do so.
Once it leaves his hands, he doesn't need to care.

There's a distinction between his brand, i.e. the Virgin name, and businesses that are licensed to use it, so, even though Branson may not own stakes in companies like Virgin Money and Virgin Media, he (or rather Virgin Enterprises) will continue to receive royalty revenue from these businesses for use of the name, and therefore if such companies suffer reputational issues, that will reflect badly on the overall Virgin brand name, and he's unlikely to be thrilled about that....

7sefton

I must admit I think Virgin Money generally have the worst service online and by phone of all the banks (I’m a serial switcher and have had accounts with all of them except Northern Irish brands). Their app is always glitchy and gives me error messages: only yesterday I tried to change my address only for it to come back with an error code. And don’t even get me started on their desktop internet banking - it’s so confusing to find anything! Really put me off using them as my main bank as I just can’t rely on them. 

username

Their credit app is a bag o' !!!!!!, they got rid of their website access. What's even worse is they got rid of all of their Virgin Money lounges as well - the one in the Haymarket in London was quite pleasant to visit, tea and coffee gratis with someone tinkling the ivories.