Virgin Money 12%

CricketLady

Just in case no one has heard of this, (I haven't yet seen it on Money Saving Expert, apologies if I'm late to the party!) Virgin Money is offering 10% for switchers into some of their current accounts, one of which gives 2% interest.  It's only on £1000 and only for a year, you have to switch with two direct debits, good luck!

danny13579

https://uk.virginmoney.com/current-accounts/switching/#whos-running-this-offer

WillPS

Interesting way of structuring a switch bonus, but if you view it as £100 bonus with the condition they have £1000 of your money for a whole year it feels a lot less generous.

Of course it'd also count as interest which is a bit of a killer for anyone at their PSA limit. Meh.

On the other hand, how many more opportunities will there be for a VM switching bonus?

jameseonline

https://www.gbnews.com/money/virgin-money-12-per-cent-interest-rate-current-account

Stargunner

Only for new customers that don’t already have a current account with them. 

jameseonline

So £1000 left in Virgin gets you £120 in a year (2% savings rate + 10% bonus) AND you have to have 2 direct debits setup, going out and paid each month

WillPS

jameseonline said:

So £1000 left in Virgin gets you £120 in a year (2% savings rate + 10% bonus) AND you have to have 2 direct debits setup, going out and paid each month

M Plus and Club M have 2% interest - M Account doesn't.

There's no requirement to have DDs paid each month as far as I can see, although the switch must include at least 2 active DD mandates.

GreenScepter

jameseonline said:

So £1000 left in Virgin gets you £120 in a year (2% savings rate + 10% bonus) AND you have to have 2 direct debits setup, going out and paid each month

I don't think the direct debits necessarily have to be monthly payments. You might not even need to keep it after the switch, you just need to transfer 2 as part of the switch. "Transfer at least two direct debits to your new account as part of the switch" is what the T&Cs say.

danny13579

£1,000 put into a Chase Saver account from today for a year at the bonus rate of 5.1% AER for the first 6 months and 4.1% AER for the second 6 months would earn around £46 in interest.

£1,000 put into an Edge account from today (assuming you don't have one already) at 7% AER would earn around £70 in interest.

So £120 in an M+ account seems pretty OK to me. And if interest rates fall later in the year it will only affect the 2% part so you're guaranteed at least £100 worst case scenario.

Bridlington1

For future reference I've archived the Ts&Cs on the wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240501160759/https://uk.virginmoney.com/current-accounts/switching/#whos-running-this-offer

TheBanker

This is interesting. If you open the Club M account, the interest would almost cover the monthly account fee, so you'd be getting the travel insurance and breakdown cover for £2.50 per month. 

Less attractive if your interest will be subject to tax though.