Virgin Money 12%

londoner62

Emily_Joy said:

I vaguely recall someone mentioning Yorkshire bank did a traditional switching offer at one stage though.

Yorkshire bank had £250 traditional switching offer at some point in 2017 - 2018.

I definitely had £150 sometime before June 2016.

danny13579

ircE said:

According to the main MSE page, the final amount of interest should be £126.80 rather than the £120 being referred to in this thread

Get 12.68% AER interest on up to £1,000 for a year – worth £125. The Virgin Money M Plus account pays 2% gross interest on up to £1,000 saved in the account, yet newbies who switch will get an extra 10% gross interest added on top – this works out at a massive 12.68% AER interest (worth a little over £125 if you keep £1,000 saved for a full year).

Interest is only paid on the first £1,000. Any interest earned per month that brings the balance above £1,000 doesn't earn any interest. If this wasn't the case, then £126.80 would be correct.

WillPS

danny13579 said:

Johnny-Cage said:

danny13579 said:

Johnny-Cage said:

125 for a year no thx 

£120. And may I ask why not?

Honestly I couldn’t be bothered waiting a full year for a switch payout 

Fair enough. I don't really see it as a switch payout. I see it more as getting a high interest rate on £1,000 for a year for having to do very little other than switching a burner account into them. 

This is true, however if Virgin Money end up doing a 'straight forward' switch bonus later in the year you'd likely be excluded (since they've always excluded existing customers) and the payout would likely be more than £70ish (which is the difference between this bonus rate and what you might get in an easy access account). 

I get that that's a big 'what if' for a bank which hasn't run a switch incentive in 18 months and is set to be acquired later this year; but for me personally I'm more inclined to sit this one out.

Johnny-Cage

WillPS said:

danny13579 said:

Johnny-Cage said:

danny13579 said:

Johnny-Cage said:

125 for a year no thx 

£120. And may I ask why not?

Honestly I couldn’t be bothered waiting a full year for a switch payout 

Fair enough. I don't really see it as a switch payout. I see it more as getting a high interest rate on £1,000 for a year for having to do very little other than switching a burner account into them. 

This is true, however if Virgin Money end up doing a 'straight forward' switch bonus later in the year you'd likely be excluded (since they've always excluded existing customers) and the payout would likely be more than £70ish (which is the difference between this bonus rate and what you might get in an easy access account). 

I get that that's a big 'what if' for a bank which hasn't run a switch incentive in 18 months and is set to be acquired later this year; but for me personally I'm more inclined to sit this one out.

I am sitting it out, I only have 1 burner account with 2 DD’s set up over a year I can do multiple switches using it and earn far more than £120

MACKEM99

I tried to open a virgin current account a few years ago but was put off by the technical aspect on the application.  Is it still the same?  

badger09

MACKEM99 said:

I tried to open a virgin current account a few years ago but was put off by the technical aspect on the application.  Is it still the same?  

Technical aspect?

danny13579

WillPS said:

This is true, however if Virgin Money end up doing a 'straight forward' switch bonus later in the year you'd likely be excluded (since they've always excluded existing customers) and the payout would likely be more than £70ish (which is the difference between this bonus rate and what you might get in an easy access account). 

I get that that's a big 'what if' for a bank which hasn't run a switch incentive in 18 months and is set to be acquired later this year; but for me personally I'm more inclined to sit this one out.

This is something I've been thinking about since they started the offer and why I haven't yet applied for an M+ account. What if they do a conventional switch offer between 1st June this year and 30th June 2025?

Or will they wait another 18 months in which case I could close the M+ account when this offer ends and open a new one for the new offer (assuming the condition for opening a new M+ account is the same as this offer), but in a year will previous Nationwide account holders who availed of a switching bonus with them also be excluded from future Virgin Money offers?

Johnny-Cage said:

I am sitting it out, I only have 1 burner account with 2 DD’s set up over a year I can do multiple switches using it and earn far more than £120

Not all of us have that luxury as we are excluded from other switch offers over the next year.

WillPS

danny13579 said:

WillPS said:

This is true, however if Virgin Money end up doing a 'straight forward' switch bonus later in the year you'd likely be excluded (since they've always excluded existing customers) and the payout would likely be more than £70ish (which is the difference between this bonus rate and what you might get in an easy access account). 

I get that that's a big 'what if' for a bank which hasn't run a switch incentive in 18 months and is set to be acquired later this year; but for me personally I'm more inclined to sit this one out.

This is something I've been thinking about since they started the offer and why I haven't yet applied for an M+ account. What if they do a conventional switch offer between 1st June this year and 30th June 2025?

Yes, I think there's a non-zero chance of that. 

danny13579 said:

Or will they wait another 18 months in which case I could close the M+ account when this offer ends and open a new one for the new offer (assuming the condition for opening a new M+ account is the same as this offer)

I don't think there's enough info to point towards an 'every 18 months' frequency. Prior to that offer they'd been much more regular. In 18 months time Virgin Money will be in a very different position - even if the Nationwide takeover is voted down by VM's current shareholders.

danny13579 said:

 in a year will previous Nationwide account holders who availed of a switching bonus with them also be excluded from future Virgin Money offers?

Even if they did stipulate this, I kind of doubt it'd be enforced. I think it's reasonably unlikely that Nationwide will pump money in to CASS bonuses for an operation they intend to sunset in the next few years. Part of me wonders if they might stop accepting new applications and/or redirect new customers to the mothership instead.

That kind of loops back to 'maybe go for it because this could be their last switching bonus'. I'm hoping it isn't, but content that it's not that good an offer to have missed even if a better one doesn't materialise.

boingy

WillPS said:

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.

Yep. I saw it and thought "nice marketing".

danny13579

WillPS said:

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.

boingy said:

Yep. I saw it and thought "nice marketing".

So if this wasn't a switching offer, i.e. they advertise that you just need to open an M+ account before the end of May and they're offering 12% interest on £1,000 from July to June, would you not consider this a good offer?