Virgin Money - withdraw cash and cheque to close account on same day

General_Grant

I wanted to close a branch-based Virgin Money account by both withdrawing most of the balance and taking a cheque for the balance.

The cashier told me I could not have both on the same day.  If I wanted cash and a closing cheque I would need to withdraw cash on one day and return on another to get the closing balance cheque.  I have not experienced such a requirement anywhere else.

So I withdrew most of the balance and will indeed return later to close the account but this time will see if I can simply have the cash and not bother with a cheque.

Has anyone else here experienced Virgin being unable to do two things on the same day?  Is it common with other financial institutions or unique to Virgin?

Band7

may be you misunderstood and they meant that you cannot close the account on the day they give you a cheque (as the cheque needs clearing before you can close the account)?

General_Grant

Band7 said:

may be you misunderstood and they meant that you cannot close the account on the day they give you a cheque (as the cheque needs clearing before you can close the account)?

No.  It was a flat refusal to allow me to withdraw cash and receive a cheque from them for the remaining balance (plus closing interest of course).  I was definitely told I had to come back on another day to close the account if I took out cash on the day I requested the cash withdrawal.

If they provide a cheque to close an account it isn't going to clear until after the account is closed. 

In case you misunderstood - I hadn't recently deposited a cheque into the Virgin account either. 

I shall try phoning the Virgin helpline tomorrow.

Section62

General_Grant said:

I wanted to close a branch-based Virgin Money account by both withdrawing most of the balance and taking a cheque for the balance.

The cashier told me I could not have both on the same day.  If I wanted cash and a closing cheque I would need to withdraw cash on one day and return on another to get the closing balance cheque.  I have not experienced such a requirement anywhere else.

So I withdrew most of the balance and will indeed return later to close the account but this time will see if I can simply have the cash and not bother with a cheque.

Has anyone else here experienced Virgin being unable to do two things on the same day?  Is it common with other financial institutions or unique to Virgin?

Yes, I've had this issue, although wanting combinations of FP/counter cheque/internal transfer rather than cash.

If you make a withdrawal you have to wait until the account is updated overnight before being able to withdraw/close the account, it seems they don't have realtime updates which would allow the balance (including interest) to be calculated for the closing transaction.

Sometimes when making a withdrawal/closing the account the branch staff will handwrite a 'pending' transaction into the book because the computer system isn't able to print that information until after the overnight update.

It is a real PITB if you want to close an account by transferring some money into a new account and have the rest FP'd into a current account.  The computer will say 'no'.

As far as I know this is unique to Virgin branch-based accounts.

MDMD

Section62 said:

General_Grant said:

I wanted to close a branch-based Virgin Money account by both withdrawing most of the balance and taking a cheque for the balance.

The cashier told me I could not have both on the same day.  If I wanted cash and a closing cheque I would need to withdraw cash on one day and return on another to get the closing balance cheque.  I have not experienced such a requirement anywhere else.

So I withdrew most of the balance and will indeed return later to close the account but this time will see if I can simply have the cash and not bother with a cheque.

Has anyone else here experienced Virgin being unable to do two things on the same day?  Is it common with other financial institutions or unique to Virgin?

Yes, I've had this issue, although wanting combinations of FP/counter cheque/internal transfer rather than cash.

If you make a withdrawal you have to wait until the account is updated overnight before being able to withdraw/close the account, it seems they don't have realtime updates which would allow the balance (including interest) to be calculated for the closing transaction.

Sometimes when making a withdrawal/closing the account the branch staff will handwrite a 'pending' transaction into the book because the computer system isn't able to print that information until after the overnight update.

It is a real PITB if you want to close an account by transferring some money into a new account and have the rest FP'd into a current account.  The computer will say 'no'.

As far as I know this is unique to Virgin branch-based accounts.

It’s because they are, I believe, largely still using the legacy Northern Rock IT for their branch based accounts which was out of date when the bank collapsed in 2008

https://www.information-age.com/inadequate-it-systems-implicated-in-nationalisation-of-northern-rock-24860/

They will have tinkered with it to add on FP capabilities but the core will largely be the old tech.  

General_Grant

Thanks for your replies.  They mean I'll not bother phoning Virgin tomorrow.