Barclays Vs Virgin 24 January at 11:44PM in ISAs & tax-free savings 3 replies 406 views

jblore

I recently subscribed to the Barclays 4% fixed ISA - but am still within the 14 day cancellation period.

Potentially thinking of scrapping this and going with Virgin's 4.25% instead.

However, come April I will have another full 20k to pay in, which I could simply add to the Barclays one, and this is unlikely with the Virgin one which may be withdrawn before then (T&Cs says you can add money 30 days after the account is withdrawn, so account has to still be open on March 7th for applications).

Or do I switch to Virgin now, and come April time simply open another ISA elsewhere (with whoever is paying a decent return).

GraceCourt

I wouldn't recomment switching to Virgin, which is in reality the Clydesdale Bank.

Astonishingly for a bank, Clydesdale Bank PLC ("Virgin Money") has some very sloppy data privacy procedures: they request that you send all of your proof of identity documents to a third party (Hooyu Limited) which starts off by requiring you to give your permission for your personal data to be transferred to a non-existent data controller.  I declined to do so for exactly that reason when applying for a "Virgin Money" credit card and after a month trying to get an explanation for this gave up: my complaints about these issues were acknowledged but ignored.  I cancelled the application because it was taking so long (well over a month).

Tesco Personal Finance Finance PLC ("Tesco Bank") had our card account opened, and PINs and cards delivered, all within a week!

GrubbyGirl_2

You do see a lot of problems with Virgin here

Beddie

I've had fewer problems with Virgin (i.e. none) than I've had with the dire Barclays.