Virgin Money ISA

RG2015

I have just noticed the following in an email I received from Virgin Money. This was advising me of the reduction in the interest rate from 4.76% to 4.51% on my Easy Access exclusive Flexible ISA effective 24 Feb 2024.

Remember that any money you take out of your ISA will no longer benefit from the tax treatment an ISA receives unless it's transferred directly to another ISA by your ISA provider.

I know what they are trying to say but as its a flexible ISA this doesn't apply.

I am afraid that this typifies the careless wording used by Virgin Money which is often matched by the lack of knowledge that some of their staff exhibit.

That aside though VM frequently have excellent interest rates on their products.

It will be very interesting to see what effect Nationwide have on Virgin Money on both of these points.

Reed_Richards

Okay, they don't mention that you can withdraw money and later put it back again but there's nothing wrong with what they do say.  If you withdraw money and put it into a non-ISA savings account then any interest there will be taxed.  If you make an ISA transfer using the correct procedure then you will continue to receive interest free from tax.

  

RG2015

Reed_Richards said:

Okay, they don't mention that you can withdraw money and later put it back again but there's nothing wrong with what they do say.  If you withdraw money and put it into a non-ISA savings account then any interest there will be taxed.  If you make an ISA transfer using the correct procedure then you will continue to receive interest free from tax.

Yes, but it is a conditional statement. The only way your argument works is if you isolate the first part (withdrawal) from the condition (place in a non-ISA account).

Bobblehat

Reed_Richards said:

Okay, they don't mention that you can withdraw money and later put it back again but there's nothing wrong with what they do say.  If you withdraw money and put it into a non-ISA savings account then any interest there will be taxed.  If you make an ISA transfer using the correct procedure then you will continue to receive interest free from tax.

  

While what they do say is not wrong, it is not the whole "picture", as RG2015 quite rightly points out. It is not helpful if Virgin only provide part of the "picture".

Still, Virgin are not the only Banking organisation to be sloppy (inadvertently or otherwise) with their wording!

jamesrcmd

I'm considering the Virgin Money ISA. How are you finding it? Can you transfer the funds via faster payment? Or does it need a linked account?

RG2015

jamesrcmd said:

I'm considering the Virgin Money ISA. How are you finding it? Can you transfer the funds via faster payment? Or does it need a linked account?

This Virgin Money exclusive ISA is currently not available. If they do reinstall it you would need a Virgin Money current account which runs on the new Virgin Money platform. It is flexible and does offer faster payments although I always transfer via the current account.

There is a limited access ISA on the old Virgin Money platform paying 4.51%. However if you make more than 3 withdrawals in a calendar year the rate drops to 1.51%.

Full information is available on the Virgin Money website.

xylophone

Just for anybody interested, I initiated a transfer  to my old Virgin Flexclusive  from my Leeds ISA late on Thursday and it completed today.