Virgin Money card - being referred to 'whether they want to keep me as a customer'

11 Posts

in Credit cards
Hi all,
First time poster 

I'm keen for some advice/feedback on whether this is something I should be worried about or am overthinking and worrying about nothing.
I've had a Virgin Money credit card for almost four years. I initially used it for a balance transfer, and have held onto it to take advantage of 0% money transfer offers from time to time, and to keep my overall available credit figure total to help my credit score.
However, I noticed yesterday that my VM card expired in July 2022, and I've never received a replacement.
I rang VM to ask for a replacement. The lady on the phone said 'the account' had expired in July. I said the account was still open and I had in fact just made a payment to it. In fact the card is marked as 'active' on the VM app on my phone. So I asked again for a new card.
She replied that my request was being referred to another dept to they assess 'whether they want to keep me as a customer'. The whole conversation was very polite, and I've never rung them before, so I wouldn't say I was marked as a difficult customer or anything like that. But she sounded a bit nervous as she was telling me this.
I've never missed a repayment, I've never attempted to go over my credit
limit, I've never taken cash out from an ATM with it. I have nothing in
my credit file that would make me a risky customer (no CCJs, never been
insolvent/bankrupt, never missed a mortgage payment, well-paid with
public sector employer, homeowner and have been in home for 15 years etc
etc). In fact, I applied for another card yesterday with Lloyds (see
below) and was immediately accepted.
At the moment I have about £7k on the VM card because I used a money transfer to pay for some house work last year. About £5k of that is currently interest-free (until 31 Jan), and I'm paying interest on the other £2k because I didn't pay that back as quickly as I thought I would.
I can't see why they'd close my account: it's in their interests to renew my card, given they're already earning interest on the £2k and the interest-free period on the remaining £5k is about to end, so they'll start earning more from me. (I've got the Lloyds card to move all this over on a balance transfer, but VM don't know that cos I haven't applied for the balance transfer yet.) Admittedly these are tiny sums to VM, but still the point remains that it's in their interest to keep my account open.
My concern is that they'll close the account and demand £7k from me that I don't have to hand. I can't transfer the balance because my current VM card has expired. And I've just got a new card for a balance transfer, so don't want to then apply for another one for a 0% money transfer to repay VM.
Should I be concerned or is this just standard practice from the bank?
If they did close my account and demand immediate repayment, my assumption is that they're well within their rights to do so and I wouldn't have grounds to complain or refer to Ombudsman etc.
Thank you in advance 

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Replies
It may be worth considering the reasons why you haven't been able to clear the balances within the interest free periods given, relying on the ability to shift the amount to a new interest free card is a risky strategy in the current CC market and will likely get tighter.
No judgement here, just suggesting you examine your ability to pay the £7k off within the interest free period on the new Lloyds CC If you manage to successfully transfer the balance over.
CC debt £283 (interest free until March)
Total low rate loan debt £3500
Almost debt free feeling, priceless.
Ex money nightmare, learnt from my mistakes and never going back there again, in control of my finances for the first time in my adult life and it feels amazing.
If you have been carry a debt for a while and only making minimum payments then you will have gone into the "persistent debt process". Different banks are taking different approaches to the new rules... some just write to you periodically saying to contact them if you have a problem whereas others are suspending cards and others are offering lower interest if you offer to over pay each month... normally a fixed monthly payment rather than the normal % of balance.
No idea where Virgin are on the spectrum but sounds like this if you've just made minimum payments
Because the transfer system asks for the card's expiry date. When I put in the current expiry date of 07/22, it rejects it because it's in the past.
As you are paying in, can the system actually check a date? so might reject a past date, but any future date (even if made up) would work.
What's the min transfer amount, might be worth a small test payment with 7/23 as date.
Fortunately they made it very easy to close
I'm thinking of asking them to either up the credit limit and give me a 0% money transfer offer or cancel the card.