Virgin Money 12%

Bridlington1

TheElectricCow said:

danny13579 said:

For anyone taking part in this offer, the rate is reducing from 2% to 1% on 1st August. 10% bonus remains the same.

So you'll now get the 12% rate only for the month of July, and 11% for the remaining 11 months.

Putting in £1,000 for the entire year will now earn you £110.85 instead of £120. 

My interpretation of that is that from August, if you qualified for the switch bonus, you’ll still get the full 12% as there’s an extra 1% bonus included for switchers (plus the 10% switch bonus and the 1% base rate). 

It does seem to be badly worded but I've just phoned them and they've said that the 1% bonus is referring to the underlying rate of the M Plus account and not a new added bonus, meaning that those doing the switch will now receive a total of 11% from 1/8/24, rather than the previous 12%.

I've just messaged them on Facebook asking the same question too so will update when/if they respond.

EDIT:
It seems the information I received over the phone was incorrect, see the post by @MSE_JC:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80798848/#Comment_80798848

danny13579

TheElectricCow said:

danny13579 said:

For anyone taking part in this offer, the rate is reducing from 2% to 1% on 1st August. 10% bonus remains the same.

So you'll now get the 12% rate only for the month of July, and 11% for the remaining 11 months.

Putting in £1,000 for the entire year will now earn you £110.85 instead of £120. 

My interpretation of that is that from August, if you qualified for the switch bonus, you’ll still get the full 12% as there’s an extra 1% bonus included for switchers (plus the 10% switch bonus and the 1% base rate). 

I see what you mean, hopefully that's what they mean.

TheElectricCow

Bridlington1 said:

TheElectricCow said:

danny13579 said:

For anyone taking part in this offer, the rate is reducing from 2% to 1% on 1st August. 10% bonus remains the same.

So you'll now get the 12% rate only for the month of July, and 11% for the remaining 11 months.

Putting in £1,000 for the entire year will now earn you £110.85 instead of £120. 

My interpretation of that is that from August, if you qualified for the switch bonus, you’ll still get the full 12% as there’s an extra 1% bonus included for switchers (plus the 10% switch bonus and the 1% base rate). 

It does seem to be badly worded but I've just phoned them and they've said that the 1% bonus is referring to the underlying rate of the M Plus account and not a new added bonus, meaning that those doing the switch will now receive a total of 11% from 1/8/24, rather than the previous 12%.

I've just messaged them on Facebook asking the same question too so will update when/if they respond.

If correct that seems quite odd, as they've described it as an additional bonus immediately after a statement regarding the 10% bonus . In my mind I find it hard to agree that the VM rep on the phone has got that right, as it makes no sense to describe in that way (also giving it a start and end date for this "additional bonus" to offset the rate reduction during the offer period) if it wasn't a separate item from the standard account interest. I can certainly see where the confusion can come from though.

danny13579

I don't know why they can't just say 10% fixed rate bonus + 2% variable rate for July, 11% fixed rate bonus + 1% variable rate for August to June, if that's what they intend to do, instead of this confusing wording.

Bridlington1

TheElectricCow said:

Bridlington1 said:

TheElectricCow said:

danny13579 said:

For anyone taking part in this offer, the rate is reducing from 2% to 1% on 1st August. 10% bonus remains the same.

So you'll now get the 12% rate only for the month of July, and 11% for the remaining 11 months.

Putting in £1,000 for the entire year will now earn you £110.85 instead of £120. 

My interpretation of that is that from August, if you qualified for the switch bonus, you’ll still get the full 12% as there’s an extra 1% bonus included for switchers (plus the 10% switch bonus and the 1% base rate). 

It does seem to be badly worded but I've just phoned them and they've said that the 1% bonus is referring to the underlying rate of the M Plus account and not a new added bonus, meaning that those doing the switch will now receive a total of 11% from 1/8/24, rather than the previous 12%.

I've just messaged them on Facebook asking the same question too so will update when/if they respond.

If correct that seems quite odd, as they've described it as an additional bonus immediately after a statement regarding the 10% bonus . In my mind I find it hard to agree that the VM rep on the phone has got that right, as it makes no sense to describe in that way (also giving it a start and end date for this "additional bonus" to offset the rate reduction during the offer period) if it wasn't a separate item from the standard account interest. I can certainly see where the confusion can come from though.

The same answer has been given on Facebook too, since I've now got two sources pointing to the same conclusion I'm inclined to believe that those doing the switch will indeed receive 1% plus the 10% bonus (assuming the underlying rate isn't cut further):


I'd agree that they've phrased it in an odd way though.

EDIT:
It seems the information I received via Facebook was incorrect, see the post by @MSE_JC:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80798848/#Comment_80798848

steven141

This is a bit sneaky. I’m glad I never went for it. It gets to the point where they could’ve worded it as keep £1000 in your current account for a year and you will get £120 paid rather than the percentages and all of these changes. 

Nasqueron

steven141 said:

This is a bit sneaky. I’m glad I never went for it. It gets to the point where they could’ve worded it as keep £1000 in your current account for a year and you will get £120 paid rather than the percentages and all of these changes. 

Even if it was 11%, it's still over £110 for switching if you have £1000 you can store - for me it's a no brainer, rather than have the money in the FD regular saver, reduce that and whack £1000 into Virgin and get more interest

PRAISETHESUN

Nasqueron said:

steven141 said:

This is a bit sneaky. I’m glad I never went for it. It gets to the point where they could’ve worded it as keep £1000 in your current account for a year and you will get £120 paid rather than the percentages and all of these changes. 

Even if it was 11%, it's still over £110 for switching if you have £1000 you can store - for me it's a no brainer, rather than have the money in the FD regular saver, reduce that and whack £1000 into Virgin and get more interest

If you factor in the opportunity cost (presumably you'd already have the money sitting at ~5% anyway) you're only really earning ~£60-70 extra, less if you pay tax on interest. Overall it's still free money, but for some the effort may not be worth it.

Nasqueron

PRAISETHESUN said:

Nasqueron said:

steven141 said:

This is a bit sneaky. I’m glad I never went for it. It gets to the point where they could’ve worded it as keep £1000 in your current account for a year and you will get £120 paid rather than the percentages and all of these changes. 

Even if it was 11%, it's still over £110 for switching if you have £1000 you can store - for me it's a no brainer, rather than have the money in the FD regular saver, reduce that and whack £1000 into Virgin and get more interest

If you factor in the opportunity cost (presumably you'd already have the money sitting at ~5% anyway) you're only really earning ~£60-70 extra, less if you pay tax on interest. Overall it's still free money, but for some the effort may not be worth it.

Sure if you consider 2 minutes applying for the account "effort" but then why be on MSE looking at switch offers if that's too much effort?! I got £65 or so cashback on my CC last year just for spending but that required me to apply for a card!! This is MSE after all and £60-70 extra for some people can make a huge difference 

WillPS

Nasqueron said:

steven141 said:

This is a bit sneaky. I’m glad I never went for it. It gets to the point where they could’ve worded it as keep £1000 in your current account for a year and you will get £120 paid rather than the percentages and all of these changes. 

Even if it was 11%, it's still over £110 for switching if you have £1000 you can store - for me it's a no brainer, rather than have the money in the FD regular saver, reduce that and whack £1000 into Virgin and get more interest

The differential on between the FD 7% reg saver and VM 11% switching bonus is 4%, or £40 presuming all £1k is saved, maybe a touch more to reflect the fact you'd have to drip feed it in over 3/4 months in FD.

It's actually a great illustation of the small beer being offered up by VM.