All banks are not the same (Virgin One)

Member Name: indychick_uk

Product:	Virgin One
Date:	30/10/01 (2780 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy, Saves money, Efficient

Disadvantages: Scary statements each month

Until recently I had a very low opinion of banks. I hated them in fact. Bunch of bankers.

My opinion had been soured by years of bad service and downright incompetence at the hands of two of the biggest high street banks, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Then, last summer, a friend suggested that I should get a Virgin One Account. I had started temping a few months earlier which meant that, potentially, I didn't have the same money coming in every month and, potentially, I could have times when I wasn't earning so trying to make regular mortgage payments could be difficult. Also, as an accountant I could see the financial benefits in the flexibility of the account so I logged on to their website to find out more.

The One Account is a combined mortgage and current account, this makes your statements look a little scary as they show an "overdrawn" balance of whatever your mortgage borrowings are!! The upside is that interest is calculated on a daily basis so on the day your salary goes in you have a lower balance and so pay less interest.

It was all so easy and friendly! I filled in the on-line form and a few days later got an information pack and an application form (pre-filled out with the info I'd registered on-line). I sent back the form and after one phone call with them that was it. I couldn't believe it, after only about two weeks from the time I registered I got confirmation through that my mortgage had been transferred to them and I received my chequebook and welcome pack.

I was amazed as the previous year I had transferred my mortgage from RBS to Bristol & West and it had taken several months, my solicitor and an independent financial advisor to sort it out!

I've recently got married and sold my house to buy a house with my new husband and when I phoned to ask how I went about sorting the One Account out I was told that adding another person is as easy as calling the
m up when he's around to answer some questions, running a credit check and adding his name.

The flexibilty of the account is fantastic. Basically, you borrow say £100,000 and you're given a payment program which says how much you should aim to leave in the account to have paid the mortgage in full in 20 years time. However, you can if you want borrow back up to the facility at any time over those 20 years as long as you've paid it all back by the end. So, if the central heating falls over you know you can pay out for it. Each month your statement tells you how far ahead or behind you are and what your new budgeted monthly amount should be.

The best bit is, you only pay interest on whatever your daily balance is - so if you get a windfall or a bonus this comes straight off your borrowings and you benefit immediately. In theory you could pay off your mortgage much earlier than the 25 year period if your earnings increase and you're leaving more in the account each month. So, unlike a traditional mortgage, you can increase and decrease your repayments to suit your earnings at any time.

Also, any changes in bank rates are applied to the Virgin account as soon as the Bank of England announces them - good at the moment when they're going down, obviously not so good if they start going up.

You get all the normal trappings of a current account too - Cheque book, Switch card and a Visa credit card. As the One account combines all your borrowings, the Visa card is cleared down into the One account once a week.

The Online services are excellent. You're given a "Global Key Code" which, along with your password and passcode, allow you to access details of your account through the VirginOne website. You can set up regular or ad-hoc payments fairly simply. You first need to email a few details to Virgin then, once the payee is set up, you can transfer money to them any time you like on the screen. You
can see all the transactions for the past month and see how far "ahead" or "behind" your payment plan you are.

All the dealings I've had have been pretty good and the staff are very helpful.

The only problem we've encountered was when they lost my husbands bank statements which we'd sent in support of our application for an increased facility to buy our new home. They turned up a few weeks later on someone's desk!

Overall, I am a Virgin convert and my faith has been restored - not all banks are the same!

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