An excellent product and excellent service from Virgin. Why have mortgage, loans, credit cards, savings and current account separate when you can put them all together and save yourself money.We were looking for a way of being able to repay our mortgage over a shorter period without committing ourselves to hefty monthly repayments. With the VirginOne account we have done just that.
It is so easy to get started - the telephone helpline is extremely helpful and take all the details they need to process the application - there are no long interviews with bank managers or reams of paperwork. They then send you the forms with all the information pre-printed - all you need to do is check and sign it then return to them.
You decide on the borrowing limit you will need to cover your requirements. The interest rate you pay is dependent on the amount your are borrowing compared to the value of your home - the lowest rate is available if you borrow less than 50% of your homes value. You will need a new valuation of your property. VirginOne have their own valuers who will call round when convenient to you. You do have to pay for the valuation upfront - it is not added to the mortgage. Ours cost around £200.
You can use your own solicitors if you want to, although VirginOne have thir own. We used ViginOne's solicitors and found they did a perfectly adequate job - arranging to repay our existing mortgage and completing the new mortgage. This service cost around £400 and was added to the mortgage.
The whole process of getting the account open is dealt with very speedily - we applied at the end of November and the account was open as soon as the normal banks reopened after the New Year (I say normal banks because Virgin are open 365 days of the year). No hassles at all. Virgin will arrange to write to all your direct debit companies to change the details over so you do not have the hassle of that. What you will ned to do though is advise your employers of the new account details for your salary.
The balance is reduced by payments into the account and therefore so is the interest you pay, because the interest is calculated daily (another bonus!). Any savings you can pay in reduce the balance further, however you can withdraw the savings when you need to. Therefore, effectively you are earning the mortgage rate on your savings and you do nto have to pay tax on the amount, which you eould if your savings were invested in a bank or building society account. The account operates like a normal current account - salary paid in, cheques and direct debits paid out. You can obtain cash via a switch card. Monthly statements are sent which give details of the following months interest payment.
Managing the account is also straightforward. The staff on the phone line are very helpful and polite - no hanging around in queues or being passed from pillar to post to get a query answered. And none of the dreaded - 'please choose from the following options...'. You get through to a human being straight away each time. Or the online account is equally easy to use.
I would recommend Virgin to anyone looking to reduce the amount and term of their mortgage - but beware! Do keep a watch on your spending - it can be all too easy to forget that the whole purpose is to reduce the mortgage, not increase it!
For further information, or to do a calculation to see how much you could save, take a looka t the website - www.virginone.com
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Sep 5th, 2001
(Nov 8th, 2001)
very helpful by (79%):
helpful by (21%):
