Virgin Atlantic Credit card- Nationwide Takeover of Virgin money

banana387

I recently opened a Virgin Atlantic Credit Card account to earn points for flights and other rewards. However, with the upcoming acquisition of Virgin Money by Nationwide, I'm starting to worry about the future of this credit card.

1. Is there a significant risk that Nationwide might change the terms or benefits associated with the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card after the takeover?
2. What might happen to the points I've accumulated if the card is altered or discontinued? Could I potentially lose the value of my points if they don't add up to anything substantial by the time changes occur?

I'd appreciate any insights or advice, especially from those who have experienced similar situations during company acquisitions or credit card changes. Thanks in advance!

retiredbanker1

1 Yes Possibly
2 You might be given a timeframe to use the points or forgo them - they could do this now - its in the terms and conditions.

I wouldn't too much for now - it will take years to get everything organised and they may just leave things as they are now?

Hoenir

The Virgin brand will last for at least another 5 years. Tinkering with minor changes from the outset is unlikely. Streamlining the new organisation will take precedence. A huge task in itself. 

WillPS

The points earned are credited to Virgin Red. If they credit card disappeared altogether the points you've earnt would still be there until they expire (which is never, apparently).

It's too early to know what the impact of the takeover will be on any particular product.

Hoenir said:

The Virgin brand will last for at least another 5 years. Tinkering with minor changes from the outset is unlikely. Streamlining the new organisation will take precedence. A huge task in itself. 

The Virgin brand is not affected by the takeover.

The Virgin Money brand will be licensed by Clydesdale Bank plc for 4 years after the takeover completes at the end of this year, then a further 2 as they exit the brand license. That's a total of 6 years, or the end of 2030.

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

It's also entirely possible that there's a natural exit point that occurs sometime in the next 6 years which will be taken.

Hoenir

WillPS said:

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

I'm simply speaking from a personal experience of the issues encountered when both acquiring and divesting businessess. The greatest challenge being resource. To decide to do something takes minutes. The implementation something else. The board of course has to set out a strategic plan first. Before the cogs of the machine can whirl into action. 

WillPS

Hoenir said:

WillPS said:

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

I'm simply speaking from a personal experience of the issues encountered when both acquiring and divesting businessess. The greatest challenge being resource. To decide to do something takes minutes. The implementation something else. The board of course has to set out a strategic plan first. Before the cogs of the machine can whirl into action. 

There isn't one single team who'll be doing this "implementation" tho, that's the flaw in this logic. The strategy could be as simple as "sell it off" in which case there will be, by neccessity, be no integration activity at all. On the other extreme they could want to bring it all under the control of the society directly, exiting anything to do with Virgin Atlantic.

We don't know Nationwide's intentions for the Virgin Money credit card operation at all; that being the case it's wrong to suggest a timescale that things will change in or an amount of time things will remain the same for (beyond those the bank has committed to in their contracts with each customer).

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

Hoenir said:

WillPS said:

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

I'm simply speaking from a personal experience of the issues encountered when both acquiring and divesting businessess. The greatest challenge being resource. To decide to do something takes minutes. The implementation something else. The board of course has to set out a strategic plan first. Before the cogs of the machine can whirl into action. 

There isn't one single team who'll be doing this "implementation" tho, that's the flaw in this logic. 

Can't see where they claimed it was a single team and even if they did it would depend on your definition of "team". 

Certainly the M&A projects I've lead we'd describe ourselves as a project team... obviously its a matrix situation as most of my project team also had a BAU team in Finance, IT, Actuarial, Ops etc. Some were full time team members, others were part time and some (like myself) are third party resources. 

I would however disagree that the only challenge is resources, having offered IBM a blank cheque to accelerate a programme from 3 years to 12 months they refused and said they agreed with my team that 3 years was the realistic quickest time you could do it in.

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

Hoenir said:

WillPS said:

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

I'm simply speaking from a personal experience of the issues encountered when both acquiring and divesting businessess. The greatest challenge being resource. To decide to do something takes minutes. The implementation something else. The board of course has to set out a strategic plan first. Before the cogs of the machine can whirl into action. 

There isn't one single team who'll be doing this "implementation" tho, that's the flaw in this logic. 

Can't see where they claimed it was a single team and even if they did it would depend on your definition of "team". 

Certainly the M&A projects I've lead we'd describe ourselves as a project team... obviously its a matrix situation as most of my project team also had a BAU team in Finance, IT, Actuarial, Ops etc. Some were full time team members, others were part time and some (like myself) are third party resources. 

I would however disagree that the only challenge is resources, having offered IBM a blank cheque to accelerate a programme from 3 years to 12 months they refused and said they agreed with my team that 3 years was the realistic quickest time you could do it in.

Virgin Money is comprised of about 8 different separate systems (there are 2 different credit card ones - even though the CYBG one hasn't had new custom added to it since the VM rebrand). Whatever they keep will be integrated in parrallel; even with 6 years they won't have time to do the whole lot sequentially.

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

Hoenir said:

WillPS said:

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

I'm simply speaking from a personal experience of the issues encountered when both acquiring and divesting businessess. The greatest challenge being resource. To decide to do something takes minutes. The implementation something else. The board of course has to set out a strategic plan first. Before the cogs of the machine can whirl into action. 

There isn't one single team who'll be doing this "implementation" tho, that's the flaw in this logic. 

Can't see where they claimed it was a single team and even if they did it would depend on your definition of "team". 

Certainly the M&A projects I've lead we'd describe ourselves as a project team... obviously its a matrix situation as most of my project team also had a BAU team in Finance, IT, Actuarial, Ops etc. Some were full time team members, others were part time and some (like myself) are third party resources. 

I would however disagree that the only challenge is resources, having offered IBM a blank cheque to accelerate a programme from 3 years to 12 months they refused and said they agreed with my team that 3 years was the realistic quickest time you could do it in.

Virgin Money is comprised of about 8 different separate systems (there are 2 different credit card ones - even though the CYBG one hasn't had new custom added to it since the VM rebrand). Whatever they keep will be integrated in parrallel; even with 6 years they won't have time to do the whole lot sequentially.

Surprised it so few... have been involved in, but thankfully not leading, the divestment of a small insurance firm and they have over 135 systems of which 30 are P1 

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

Hoenir said:

WillPS said:

There isn't a single to-do list to integrate the two operations. They might choose to do nothing and leave the credit card operation as is, they might rationalise it and integrate it in to the mothership, they might spin it off... there's any number of possibilities; but it's not correct to suggest there won't be changes because they'll be too busy with other stuff. 

I'm simply speaking from a personal experience of the issues encountered when both acquiring and divesting businessess. The greatest challenge being resource. To decide to do something takes minutes. The implementation something else. The board of course has to set out a strategic plan first. Before the cogs of the machine can whirl into action. 

There isn't one single team who'll be doing this "implementation" tho, that's the flaw in this logic. 

Can't see where they claimed it was a single team and even if they did it would depend on your definition of "team". 

Certainly the M&A projects I've lead we'd describe ourselves as a project team... obviously its a matrix situation as most of my project team also had a BAU team in Finance, IT, Actuarial, Ops etc. Some were full time team members, others were part time and some (like myself) are third party resources. 

I would however disagree that the only challenge is resources, having offered IBM a blank cheque to accelerate a programme from 3 years to 12 months they refused and said they agreed with my team that 3 years was the realistic quickest time you could do it in.

Virgin Money is comprised of about 8 different separate systems (there are 2 different credit card ones - even though the CYBG one hasn't had new custom added to it since the VM rebrand). Whatever they keep will be integrated in parrallel; even with 6 years they won't have time to do the whole lot sequentially.

Surprised it so few... have been involved in, but thankfully not leading, the divestment of a small insurance firm and they have over 135 systems of which 30 are P1 

135 separate platforms? Presumably that included many instances of the same thing; there'll be a fair amount of that too as many Clydesdale/Yorkshire systems were identical but separate (hence there now being 3 different routes Virgin Money ISA transfers need to be passed through, since they have the legacy Northern Rock stuff too...)

But yeah a glance at Virgin Money's login suggests it's a lot more than I guessed - there are 10 top level options, of which most yield multiple options at the second level.

Suffice to say some of these will likely be binned rather than integrated, and some stuff might not need to be integrated at all (including credit cards, maybe), but there'll be more to do than would be possible if they did each product line sequentially.

username

The options I can see are:

1) It gets integrated some way into the Nationwide portfolio, but this seems unlikely as they've only got one credit card for all and I can't see them wanting to stump up more cash for the Virgin name/association. This is a company that makes money through royalties and the Virgin name.
2) They do a "John Lewis" and the credit card options are sold onto another party like New Day, who either continue the branded offer, or replace with one of their own.
3) It gets ditched entirely and they withdraw it from the market, a la Metro Bank stylee. Sorry guys your credit card won't work from the end of the month, kthxbye. Ps. pls pay us everything you owe.
4) We all get Nationwide credit cards instead (and what happens with those of us that already have one?!).
5)  Everything continues as is. Nationwide cough up the royalties, the platform stays as is, and Richard Branson continues to lounge on his yacht off Necker Island.

Five very unscientific back of the napkin options there.