Avoid at all costs (Virgin Mastercard)

Member Name: savmot

Product:	Virgin Mastercard
Date:	05/10/08 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: They will rip you off as much as possible

This review will not be very long, as to be honest I don't have a huge amount to say.
We all know virgin, and we all know about credit cards. You'll get the usual deals upon opening an account, so many months interest free on balance transfers, so many months interest free on purchases, but what I want to share with you is the reason I will never use virgin money again for anything.

I got my card with them about two years ago. Last year I found myself financially screwed due to a break up with my girlfriend. I had nowhere to live, and my job wasn't enough hours to be able to support myself, or get somewhere to live, nor did I have any furniture or home equiptment.
I already had 8k of debt with Egg, and I found myself getting into more. Another 3k with this virgin credit card.
I finally sorted myself out, and got into a situation, with a home and a full time job where I could stop spending on cards, and start paying them off.

To make things more manageable I contacted virging to stop my payment protection, as it was taking my minimum payments up to £80 a month, when if otherwise would have been £40, so I could actually afford to pay some off the balance, instead of PP and interest.

Within two weeks, I had received a letter from Virgin informing me they were doubling my interest to 34.9% on all existing and future transactions, therefore taking my minimum payment back up to £80.
This is not the kind of blatent theft I expect from one of the biggest companies in the world, and in fact, find it difficult to accept that this kind of action is even legal.
Virgin will screw you at any given opportunity, and are not to be trusted.

Summary: An extremely biased review from someone who now hates richard branson for making them skint.