Virgin One account - WARNING!

tinalives

Perhaps if I describe some of the things I do, it'll illustrate.

1) Although it's physically a single account, I notionally run my mortage as 3 overlaid loans : a loan to pay for the house plus 2 to pay for the cars. I have a spreadsheet which calculates what I should owe on each loan then adds them together, so if I owe more than that I'm behind plan, less than that ahead of plan.

2) My house loan (aka mortgage) was originally for 25 years. 5 years on, a 15 year total term is my current goal. Some of this is by pro-active overpayment : I originally targetted paying £700 in notional payment to this loan whereas now it's nearer £890. However, much of it is because if I spend less than I earn, it overpays the mortgage - no forethought, it just happens. What I tend to do on an annual basis is if I'm consistently managing to overpay, I make the schedule more aggressive.

3) I operate my car loan over 4 years. If I'm overpaying, I might shorten the loan period...typically it tends to take me 3 years. This year, only one year after getting a new car, I decided I was bored with it so part-exed it. To do this I just stuck an extra £10k on my notional car loan and reset the period to pay in another 4 years. The only contact with a financial institution I needed was a courtesy call to tell them I was about to stick £10k on Switch (in fact, this was my first ever chip & pin transaction - don't do things by half).

4) My wife's car loan is over 5 years. However, we managed to get a 0% deal, but it's only over 3 years. Therefore, we treat the £350 repayment on the 0% deal as being £250 that she's paying, and £100 that's accruing on her notional car loan in the mortgage. As such, her loan within the mortgage consists of something that goes up by £100/month for the next 3 years, then will be repaid at £250/month over the following 2.

5) I'm reasonably conservative with my stoozing - see some folks on the credit card board. However, I've transferred £25k of my mortgage onto 0% credit cards. If these deals dry up, no problem, I can transfer the debt back onto my mortgage at the click of a button.

6) My expenses came in yesterday - £2k. Most of them relate to an Amex bill, not due to be paid for 3 weeks. In the meantime that £2k's reducing my mortgage.

7) My wife was expecting a baby - unfortunately didn't come to fruition. However, if it did, we were going to get by through taking a couple of years holiday from the mortage, just letting it accrue in the meantime. No approval needed.

8) My company offers SAYE schemes - save for 3 years, then have the option of buying shares at today's price minus 20%. It's a one way bet because in the worst case situation the shares bomb so you don't exercise the option and you get your cash plus interest back. Couple of years ago my company was in the doldrums - dot com crash etc. Therefore, the shares were ridiculously under-priced...SAYE was an even bigger one way bet than normal. My colleagues put in what they could afford. I plumped for the maximum payment, reasoning that if I couldn't afford it, it'd just mean my mortgage would ramp up a bit. I know from history that you don't value shares until the day you sell them, but currently this flexibility means I'm sitting on a £25K gain, whereas my colleagues will get perhaps half of that.

Blimey!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

farmroad38

bunking_off wrote:

However, the One Account isn't the only current account mortgage out there - a fact I reminded RBOS about in my letter to them ...

I too noticed this sudden change for my One Account, and I called them to complain, only to be fobbed off with the same excuse. I have asked for my complaint to be formally logged, but I doubt it will make any difference.

I'm worried that this could be the thin end of the wedge, and I'm aware that the One interest rate isn't as competitive as it might be, so I've been looking around for alternatives. You say that there are other current account mortgages on the market, yet I don't seem to be able to find any (except the RBoS offering, which sort of defeats the object). Could you give examples?

bunking_off

It isn't something I've looked into in any depth, but from a cursory glance at some of the mortgage brokers some of the candidates seem to be Yorkshire Bank, Woolwich, Northern (not Rock), Clydesdale and Bristol & West.

I've had a reply to my email...guess the more of us who complain the better.

Won't type it all verbatim but the main points were;

- Thanks, have brought it to the attention of our Management Team
- Decision was taken in line with all RBS products
- Sorry that I'm disappointed, rate will continue to be reviewed whenever BoE changes rate
- Assurance that One Account will be kept competitive. Reminder about lack of redemption penalties (a wise move in reply to a mail from a customer threatening to leave??), acceptance that they're not the cheapest but pride themselves on their customer service (can't argue with that).

To be honest, I'm hacked off with what they've done. However, reading the press it seems that some other providers have either not dropped their rates at all, or pulled a fast one and only dropped rates by 0.2%. Wouldn't defend the actions of One Account, but they're not the worst in the pack...

farmroad38

bunking_off wrote:

It isn't something I've looked into in any depth, but from a cursory glance at some of the mortgage brokers some of the candidates seem to be Yorkshire Bank, Woolwich, Northern (not Rock), Clydesdale and Bristol & West.

Thanks for that. I'd forgotten, but I had looked at the Yorkshire Bank offering - it is a true CAM, but the interest rate makes the One Account look much better. Northern and Clydesdale are the same, because they are all part of the NAB group.

The Woolwich and B&W ones seem like the usual offset accounts, rather than CAMs.

As you say, I'm wary of jumping ship and ending up with a worse deal, but I've started looking now and the more I look, the more I reckon I'm paying over the odds for flexibility that I'm not necessarily using to the fullest extent. However, we've also only just upped our facility, so the prospect of going through the whole rigmarole of valuations et al doesn't appeal too much. Hmmmm...

Judep_2

I also emailed about the rate change not taking effect until 1st Sept, and got this response:

“Thank you for contacting us through our website. With regards to the change of interest rate now being on the first of each month, this has been amended to run in line with RBS policy of when to increase or decrease the interest rate after the bank of Scotland announcements. If you have any further queries ….”

So, given that they've just said that change of rate date is now the 1st of the month, I asked if they could confirm that any rate increases would also be on the 1st of the month (and not immediately following announcement as previously), and got this:

“Thank you for contacting us through our website. Following each change in the base rate, we review our rates to decide what they should be and from when they should apply. It's a decision we will make each time the rates change. If you have any further queries ….”.

So "no" then???

(Would be interesting to know how many people have emailed them about this!)

money4nothing

Hi all -

Just thought I'd add that over a week after my original call to Virgin, still no written reply from them (that I specifically requested). No doubt it will contain what some of you have written here so there'll be no surprises! I have called them again tonight and reiterated my comments. The letter is in the post... I'll add information when I receive it.

I have made the most of the flexibility that the account offers and, in general, they are good at listening and responding to feedback. I can't help feeling that the quality has slipped since they became part of RBS though. The more of us that offer feedback (good or bad), the more they will have to listen. btw, I have suggested what they might like to consider doing to help me feel like a valued customer once again...

Browntoa

They have now lodged my 2nd email to them as a complaint and that someone would ring me to discuss it....still waitng 4 days later !!!

bunking_off

Must admit, although their response was largely "fobbing off" material, I can't fault them on their timeliness....email reply same day, letter the day after...