Not very impressive... (Virgin Mastercard)

Member Name: laura2481

Product:	Virgin Mastercard
Date:	12/05/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good 0% offer for balance trasfers

Disadvantages: poor communication. hard sell on PPI

This review is based on my experience of applying for an account with Virgin Credit card, and getting the account up and running.

~The Application~
I was enticed to apply for the Virgin Credit card with it's current offer of 16 months 0% interest on Balance transfers. (there is also a 2.98% balance trasfer fee but this is fairly standard) I completed my application online at http://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/credit-cards-v3/
The actual application requires all the details that you would have to give if completing an application on a paper form. These include your employment details, income and other credit card debts. The form is not too lengthy and took approximately 15 mins to fill in as it needed a few details I needed to look up. If you have to hand your bank details, income and outgoing information then it could probably be done a bit quicker. At the end of the form it says you will be contacted within 10 working days as to whether you have been accepted or not. With the form being online, and your email address being taken, I did expect to hear from them via Email but this turned out not to be the case.

~After the Application~
I heard nothing from Virgin money for a week. I did not find this untoward as they had said it could be up to 10 working days and I had applied at a weekend. Then, one day, I came home to find a letter from Virgin Money. It was quite a thin looking letter and I thought to myself that it was a 'Thanks but no thanks letter' but when I opened it was PIN for my new card. I was a little perplexed, but had to assume that I had been accepted.

I now expected to receive an email or a letter very shortly from Virgin money comfirming I had been accepted and what credit limit I had been given. I was wrong on this count, too. 5 days later I received a letter from MBNA saying that I had been accepted (MBNA being the provider of the Virgin Credit card) but giving no details of credit limit or other relevent information. What they did include was a booklet on the PPI insurance that they sell, which I had declined when filling in the form online. I found it a little annoying that they were trying again to sell me insurance.

By this time I was a little impatient to find out the details of my account as I wanted to make plans. I rang a number which I found on their website which said it would take you to the department which 'tracked your application'. I expected this to take you straight through to that department but in fact you had to listen to various options and press 1,2 *# etc to get through the right people. Luckily, it was a free phone number.

When I eventually spoke to someone and explained the situation, the girl was very friendly and helpful and quickly explained to me what credit limit I had been given. Even though I had not received my card yet she offered to organise my balance transfers straight away. I agreed, as this would save me paying interest to the other card! This girl also explained how long the 0% offer lasted and that failing to pay a minimum payment, or going over the limit, would result in the 0% offer being immediately withdrawn. I thought this was very good as I know that many people have been upset when they have missed a payment etc and the offer was withdrawn as they did not read the fine print! This whole phone call, and balance transfer, only took about 10 minutes and was handled very efficiently and proffessionally.

The next day I actually received my card. This also included written confirmation of my credit limit. When receiving a new card you have to call them to activate it. I called them straight away on the number provided to 'activate your card now' Again I expected this to go straight to this option but needed me to go through the usual 1,2 *# options again! I don't know why they have so many seperate numbers for different things when you always have to go through the number punching! Anyway, I eventually got through to a girl who asked a variety of security question before activating the card. All well and good, THEN she proceeded to spend 20 minutes trying to sell me the PPI insurance AGAIN, and identity theft insurance. I was particularly irritated by this further attempt too sell as when I said on severla occasions that 'no thank you, I'm not interested' I was asked 'Why?' and 'what other protection do you have?' With previous companies activating a card was merely a matter of confirming the card had been received and I was the intended recipient. I was not particularly impressed by the hard sell at this point. On a more positive note the girl on the phone this time was also very pleasent and friendly.

And so it remains to be seen if this will be a long and beautiful relationship with Virgin money. As it stands I am quite underwhelmed by the poor communication and hard sell, but at least their call centre staff are pleasent, friendly and UK based.

Summary: A bit of an underwhelming start with the company