Virgin Credit Card > Reviews (23)

The Virgin Credit Card from Virgin was launched in the UK in 2002. Since that time it has grown into one of the most well known and recognizable credit cards on the market today. Offering low APR, interest, and a range of other features such as money off other virgin products this card do have many rewards.

Signing up to a Virgin card is easy and can be done either on the phone or the Internet. I chose to use the internet because I felt that it was the quicker option and less hassle. I went to, www.virginmoney.co.uk, clicked on the virgin credit card option and this loaded up the details and benefits of the card along with how to sign up.

Through the online credit card application you simply fill in your details, income earned per year, address and phone number. You have the option to choose a card design, at the moment there are 3 different colours to choose from, black, red and pink. There is an option to take out payment protection which basically costs less than £1 a month and protects your payments in the event of job loss or illness. I advise you to take this out especially if you have a large credit limit.

By the time you have filled in your details, read the terms and conditions and confirmed you want to sign up for the card, you then receive a decision to whether your application has been successful or not. This is done within 30 seconds and I assume Virgin checks your credit rating and score to lead to their decision.

Having passed the application online for the Virgin Credit card, mine arrived in the post within 5 days of my application. I received a booklet about the terms and conditions along with my credit card. With a credit limit of £1000 I was reluctant to use it, thinking that one purchase might lead to another and so on. I decided to give customer services a ring to lower my credit limit to £200. This made sure I wouldn't be tempted to go over the top and flash the plastic.

Having owed £100 on a Visa card, I transferred this across to my new Virgin credit card. On the Virgin Money website it says card transfers are free of charge but however I found this not to be the case as my account had a £3 Virgin fee applied to it for the transfer.

My Barclaycard was about 27% APR a year and I thought I'd save money transferring to my Virgin card which is about 16.8% so over the next 4 or 5 months I would be paying less interest. I found this to be the case and on a balance of £100, I would only have to pay around £1 on interest a month, compared to the £2 interest a month on the Barclaycard.

The only benefit of my Visa card was that the minimum payment every month was only £5, compared to £25 which I now have to pay every month on my Virgin Card balance. I found this abit steep but at the same time realised I would pay my debt off quicker and therefore save me money on interest. To make the most of your Virgin card and avoid paying interest and fees, it is advisable that you pay your account off in full each month.

The charges for late payments and missed payments can be quite costly at around £12.

With the card providing a low APR they certainly make up for it in charges with interest, payment protection options and insurance to cover your card in event of loss or theft. Again to avoid most of these charges it is simply just a case of making either the full payment or minimum payment of £25 each month. I found it useful setting up a direct debit at the bank, therefore I would not miss a payment.

Having the internet allows you to manage your Virgin credit card by creating an account on, www.virginmoney.co.uk. It takes around 5 minutes to set up and is easy to use. The account details your statements, contact details and an option to receive paperless statements.

There is an option to set up a direct debit, which is recommended so you don't miss a payment. You can also contact the virgin credit card team by sending them an email through your online account. The main benefit of online banking is that you can track your spending whenever you want and make payments through the internet.

Overall the Virgin credit card offers the customer credit at a cheaper rate than most of its competitors. Customer service over the telephone is excellent and the staff are always willing to assist you with any enquiries that you have.