Virgin 1 Year Fixed Rate ISA 5.05%

HHUK

badger09 said:

Virgin allow you to subscribe ie pay new money into, only one cash ISA with them per year. You could have more than one if you pay into only one & use the other(s) for xfers. I don’t know how strictly they apply this. 

Looks like they try to apply it strictly.

Back in September I transferred a small sum (current tax year subscriptions) from a Trading 212 Cash ISA to a Virgin Fixed Rate Cash ISA 14. The other day I noticed that on 6 November Virgin randomly transferred a roughly similar sum from the Fixed Rate Cash ISA to my Virgin M Plus current account, with the description 'Dup ISA' (thereby removing it from the ISA wrapper).

Yesterday I received a letter dated 6/11/2024 from Virgin Money explaining that they paid the money into my current account because I 'have subscribed into two Cash ISA's in the same tax year'. I have indeed subscribed to another Virgin Fixed Rate Cash ISA (12) this tax year.

I have lodged an official complaint with Virgin Money because current legislation permits subscriptions to multiple ISA's in a single tax year, but that was before I saw a post in this thread stating that Virgin Money's own terms don't allow it. I await their response.

.

flaneurs_lobster

HHUK said:

I have lodged an official complaint with Virgin Money because current legislation permits subscriptions to multiple ISA's in a single tax year, but that was before I saw a post in this thread stating that Virgin Money's own terms don't allow it. I await their response.

Do the decent thing and withdraw your (erroneous) complaint. Virgin can choose to offer a single Cash ISA to their customers if they so wish.

HHUK

flaneurs_lobster said:

Do the decent thing and withdraw your (erroneous) complaint. Virgin can choose to offer a single Cash ISA to their customers if they so wish.

They can. But they allowed me to open two in this tax year. I intended Issue 12 to be for 'new' money and Issue 14 for transfers in from other providers. 

They extol the virtues of bringing 'all your ISAs together in one place', which is what I wanted to do. I suppose they are relying on the bit in their terms that states 'You can only subscribe to one Virgin Money Cash ISA in any tax year', but I have only paid 'new' money into one of theirs.

I had already phoned them about the issue before receiving their letter, and they are supposed to be calling me back tomorrow. I'll wait and see what they have to say, if that's all right with you.

SirHugo

HHUK said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Do the decent thing and withdraw your (erroneous) complaint. Virgin can choose to offer a single Cash ISA to their customers if they so wish.

They can. But they allowed me to open two in this tax year. I intended Issue 12 to be for 'new' money and Issue 14 for transfers in from other providers. 

They extol the virtues of bringing 'all your ISAs together in one place', which is what I wanted to do. I suppose they are relying on the bit in their terms that states 'You can only subscribe to one Virgin Money Cash ISA in any tax year', but I have only paid 'new' money into one of theirs.

I had already phoned them about the issue before receiving their letter, and they are supposed to be calling me back tomorrow. I'll wait and see what they have to say, if that's all right with you.

I was waiting to see the outcome of this as I've got a Virgin Money ISA maturing on the 29th Nov and I've already opened a fixed rate ISA with them earlier this year.

Unfortunately it looks like their 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been now been pulled. Was planning to open this ISA this week ready to transfer my maturing one in.

HHUK

SirHugo said:

I was waiting to see the outcome of this as I've got a Virgin Money ISA maturing on the 29th Nov and I've already opened a fixed rate ISA with them earlier this year.

Unfortunately it looks like their 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been now been pulled. Was planning to open this ISA this week ready to transfer my maturing one in.

That's a shame.

No final outcome for me as yet. I still await a formal response from the complaints people, but the agent I had spoken with last week called me back yesterday and basically repeated the contents of their letter. She asked if I wanted to raise a complaint and when I confirmed that I had already done so she said she'd update it to reflect our conversations. 

I made the points that their letter states 'This means that you have subscribed into two Cash ISA's in the same Tax Year', not into two Virgin Money Cash ISA's in the same Tax Year, which doesn't help, and that I'm pretty sure when I applied for the transfer from Trading 212 I ticked a box confirming it would involve current tax year subscriptions, so it's not as if they shouldn't have known what I was trying to do. Also that their actions have resulted in the (admittedly trivial) sum transferred from Trading 212 being removed from the ISA wrapper.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I received a text message from Virgin Money today thanking me for my interest in a Virgin Money Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 3. (I must have started an application and then aborted it when the questions around holding multiple ISAs with them arose.) The text goes on to say that it's now off sale but not to worry, I have until 26 November to finish my application. It even includes a link to enable me to access details of how to do this!

flaneurs_lobster

SirHugo said:

HHUK said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Do the decent thing and withdraw your (erroneous) complaint. Virgin can choose to offer a single Cash ISA to their customers if they so wish.

They can. But they allowed me to open two in this tax year. I intended Issue 12 to be for 'new' money and Issue 14 for transfers in from other providers. 

They extol the virtues of bringing 'all your ISAs together in one place', which is what I wanted to do. I suppose they are relying on the bit in their terms that states 'You can only subscribe to one Virgin Money Cash ISA in any tax year', but I have only paid 'new' money into one of theirs.

I had already phoned them about the issue before receiving their letter, and they are supposed to be calling me back tomorrow. I'll wait and see what they have to say, if that's all right with you.

I was waiting to see the outcome of this as I've got a Virgin Money ISA maturing on the 29th Nov and I've already opened a fixed rate ISA with them earlier this year.

Unfortunately it looks like their 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been now been pulled. Was planning to open this ISA this week ready to transfer my maturing one in.

Virgin have emailed

We’re getting in touch to let you know that your 1 Year Fixed Rate Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 9 will end on 29 November 2024. This email details what happens when your account matures, and outlines your options. After maturity, we’ll automatically switch your account to an Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 3 in line with your Terms.

About your new ISA Below is a summary of the new Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 3: It pays a variable interest rate of 4.51% Tax Free‡ AER†. It’s flexible, so you can take money out and pay money back in, without affecting your annual allowance – although money can only be replaced in the same tax year. Each tax year, you can save up to your annual ISA allowance, which is £20,000 in the 2024/2025 tax year. You can only subscribe to one Virgin Money Cash ISA per tax year.

I'll assume that I can't add "new" money to this new ISA since I already have a VM Cash ISA (Excl Fixed 14) opened and funded this year. For extra added confusion I also have an Excl Fixed 12 which was minimally funded but then emptied by VM under their "only one subscription/year rule).

SirHugo

flaneurs_lobster said:

SirHugo said:

HHUK said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Do the decent thing and withdraw your (erroneous) complaint. Virgin can choose to offer a single Cash ISA to their customers if they so wish.

They can. But they allowed me to open two in this tax year. I intended Issue 12 to be for 'new' money and Issue 14 for transfers in from other providers. 

They extol the virtues of bringing 'all your ISAs together in one place', which is what I wanted to do. I suppose they are relying on the bit in their terms that states 'You can only subscribe to one Virgin Money Cash ISA in any tax year', but I have only paid 'new' money into one of theirs.

I had already phoned them about the issue before receiving their letter, and they are supposed to be calling me back tomorrow. I'll wait and see what they have to say, if that's all right with you.

I was waiting to see the outcome of this as I've got a Virgin Money ISA maturing on the 29th Nov and I've already opened a fixed rate ISA with them earlier this year.

Unfortunately it looks like their 1 year fixed ISA Exclusive at 4.51% has been now been pulled. Was planning to open this ISA this week ready to transfer my maturing one in.

Virgin have emailed

We’re getting in touch to let you know that your 1 Year Fixed Rate Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 9 will end on 29 November 2024. This email details what happens when your account matures, and outlines your options. After maturity, we’ll automatically switch your account to an Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 3 in line with your Terms.

About your new ISA Below is a summary of the new Easy Access Cash ISA Exclusive Issue 3: It pays a variable interest rate of 4.51% Tax Free‡ AER†. It’s flexible, so you can take money out and pay money back in, without affecting your annual allowance – although money can only be replaced in the same tax year. Each tax year, you can save up to your annual ISA allowance, which is £20,000 in the 2024/2025 tax year. You can only subscribe to one Virgin Money Cash ISA per tax year.

I'll assume that I can't add "new" money to this new ISA since I already have a VM Cash ISA (Excl Fixed 14) opened and funded this year. For extra added confusion I also have an Excl Fixed 12 which was minimally funded but then emptied by VM under their "only one subscription/year rule).

Yes, I received the same email yesterday. Actually I'm fairly happy with it. I would have preferred the fixed rate I was originally looking at but this is better than most offerings currently available elsewhere and also fully flexible. I wasn't expecting something no longer being offered by Virgin.
I think I'll probably move most of this 4.51% ISA into a couple of my 90 day notice accounts for a few months and then replace it before the end of the tax year.

Bobblehat

Similar to FL above, I have Virgin Fixed ISA Iss 10 maturing on 31/01/2025 and took out Virgin Fixed ISA Iss 14 in August 24 by transferring in a Coventry EA ISA with £20K of 23/24 money and £20K of 24/25 money.

Have I misunderstood the situation, Virgin are allowing you to open a new EA ISA by transferring the maturing Fixed Iss9 in, so letting you have 2 ISA's running simultaneously that will have been both opened in 24/25, i.e. The New EA ISA and the slightly older Fixed ISA Iss 14? Is that right?

I understand under these circumstances I couldn't add new money to the EA ISA until 25/26 ... but that would suit me if the rates were OK.

flaneurs_lobster

Bobblehat said:

Similar to FL above, I have Virgin Fixed ISA Iss 10 maturing on 31/01/2025 and took out Virgin Fixed ISA Iss 14 in August 24 by transferring in a Coventry EA ISA with £20K of 23/24 money and £20K of 24/25 money.

Have I misunderstood the situation, Virgin are allowing you to open a new EA ISA by transferring the maturing Fixed Iss9 in, so letting you have 2 ISA's running simultaneously that will have been both opened in 24/25, i.e. The New EA ISA and the slightly older Fixed ISA Iss 14? Is that right?

I understand under these circumstances I couldn't add new money to the EA ISA until 25/26 ... but that would suit me if the rates were OK.

That's how my VM ISA's now sit, a Fixed 14 opened 8/8/24 plus an EA 3 converted from the Fixed 9 that matured 29/11.

I've got about £1.5k of this year's ISA subscription left, I've been able to add a speculative £1 to the issue 14, but I don't think this is actually allowed so haven't subbed further.

Bobblehat

Thanks for that. I got it in my head that Virgin might force me to transfer out the maturing Iss 10 to a new ISA provider because I had already subscribed to Fixed ISA Iss 14 in this tax year! I will just wait for the maturity options letter and see if what they offer is close to the best available in January.