Like a Virgin (Saving For The Very First Time)

Advantages: Great customer service and communication, Good fund performance
Disadvantages: The automated phone line can be frustrating to use

...month for my future. This review is based on my own experience with the product I chose, Virgin Money's Stakeholder Pension. - What is a Pension? In its simplest form, a pension is the income you receive when you retire, paid to you in regular instalments (called an annuity). To build up a pot of money to pay this annuity, someone has to do some saving; what differentiates one type of pension scheme from another is how the saving is done, by whom, and how the income is generated from the saving. There are three basic sorts - the state pension (what the government pays you on reaching state retirement age, which is theoretically saved from your National Insurance contributions), the occupational pension (one you get through some employers, and which is built up through a mixture of employee and employer contributions), and a personal...

Collingwood21 03.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Pensions

It's great with a virgin

Advantages: see text
Disadvantages: none so far

...Just over a year ago we were considering changing our mortgage to get a better deal I was intrigued by Virgin One?s advertising and decided to contact them. They claim that eight out of ten people would save thousand of pounds with this account. Obviously with a claim like this I had to find out more. I initially contacted them by phone and found them to be very helpful and informative. After providing some basic information they gave me a personal illustration, giving details of what my mortgage account would be with them, and things then progressed from there. I was somewhat apprehensive about changing my current account over, which I had had with the same high street bank for 20 years, but things went smoothly and the Virgin One staff contacted us regularly with updates. Virgin One is different to most other mortgage lenders...

Donald 02.01.2002 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Accounts

Virgin One Account - Highly recommended

Advantages: Fantastic flexibility, excellent service, simple charges
Disadvantages: Interest rates not the lowest, may be too flexible for some people

...in my savings account I had several thousand pounds (earning a miserly 1% interest of course). I had the money, just not in the right place at the right time. Sound familiar? The problem is that I am often too busy (or lazy) to shuffle my money from account to account on a daily basis to keep everything in balance. Of course the bank thinks this is a great scam - they are making money for doing nothing. It's a complete JOKE, but you can't do much about it. All the banks are as bad as each other, despite the millions they spend in advertising trying to convince us otherwise. The Virgin One Account changed all that. Imagine if you could get a personal loan (anytime you want it) and a credit card with an interest rate of 5.2% APR and a savings account which effectively pays 6% or more. No hassle, no fees, no extortionate interest...

Mike_kiwi 30.08.2002 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Accounts

Virgin One Account all banks are not the same

Advantages: Combines your current account, savings & mortgage & calculates interest daily on the combined balance. Also allows you to borrow back up to the initial advance at any time.
Disadvantages: If you're not good at budgeting you might find you haven't paid it off by the end of the term (actually I don't think they'd really let this happen)

...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, potentialy, 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...

indychick_uk 26.03.2001 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Accounts

Enjoy life, be a Virgin

Advantages: Flexible, total control, premium service, low cost
Disadvantages: lack of face-to-face contact

...Innovation...leading the field....people's champion. Branson springs to mind. And Virgin One (now under Royal Bank of Scotland control) delivers in the same manner. With Virgin One gone are the days when one's mortgage value goes up instead of down, interest calculatedted monthly/annually and penalties imposed for daring to pay off huge chunk of your own debt (this is the essence of a mortgage afterall). Instead you can truly take control of your finances and not be penalised. On the contrary if sensibly handled you will benefit from a falling interest rate (the more you pay off the mortgage the lower the interest rate becomes). The rewards are greatest if all finances are handled through the account - have salaries, under-performing investments and any spare cash paid into the account and, because of the daily interest calculation...

richard1 23.11.2001 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Accounts

veni, Visa, Virgin...

Advantages: Easy to set up
Disadvantages: Rates and charges not the best out there in moneyland

......I came, I spent, I Virgined. Virgin Direct used to do a great deal on PEPs when I first joined them in 1996, although when the PEP ideal became an ISA the rates changed and the performance suffered, so I just left a direct debit set up with them and didn't check out any of their other products. Recently, with interest rates falling to their lowest levels for 40 years, I decided to roll my financial sleeping bag up and pitch tent (ie mortgage, credit cards, savings) in one of the all-in-one you-haven't -got-a-mortgage-just-a-bl**dy-big-overdraft accounts on the market. I've been very happy with my Cahoot current account, but they just haven't gone into the big money market yet. The two best deals on the market seemed to be the Halifax Intelligent Finance option or the Virgin One account. I tried dealing with IF and came away...

niksmiff 13.01.2002 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money

Virgin - they've definitely done this before

Advantages: So easy and simple
Disadvantages: takes a while to get used to it

...As with most people these days I was finding managing a mortgage/credit card and loan debts quite overwhelming. I earn a good wage but never seemed to have any money. I saw the Virgin One account advertised a few times, but couldn’t quite suss it out. Money and me don’t work very well and it would have to be explained at a very simple level for me to understand it. So I went onto the webb site www.virginone.com to have a look and try and get some info. The site itself is very informative, however to get a good idea of whether this is the account for you, you need to have some figures available, debts, incomings, outgoings that sort of thing, and a good half hour to go through the screens. So, having got half way through filling in forms I decided to phone Virgin One instead, and I am so glad I did. Each person I...

amandah 22.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Accounts

Why Virgin Whats in it for us

Advantages: Flexibility, Daily interest, Online/Phone banking
Disadvantages: Strict control over your finances

...After being with a large high street mortgage lender for out first home and continuing with them when we moved we found that most of out money was tied up in the equity of our home, like most people, high street lenders have in the past failed to respond to the changing needs of their customers. Then Virgin came along. I was sceptical at first, why should I swap my capped rate mortgage for a variable rate and pay my existing mortgage company a hefty sum to move my mortgage. The answer…Saving money. At first the idea of collecting all my accounts, savings and credit cards, loans and my mortgage into one account was daunting, did I really want to be able to see my mortgage balance every time I checked my current account. The team at Virgin made it very simple to apply and within 8 weeks we had signed the paperwork. So...

TLCK9 10.03.2001 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Mortgages

Ive made money already

Advantages: Easy to pay In, you can see your investment grow online, very helpful staff
Disadvantages: Can't really think of any from my point of view

...OK - I know absolutely nothing about ISA's other than the little bit of research I did on the web. So I thought it's time to start saving, where do I begin. I got to the virgin website and found it easy to navigate and informative, but being a bit suspicious I thought I'd ring them. Spoke to a guy called Paul who answered all the questions he could. I could get a mini stocks and shares ISA which seemed to be good for saving regularly for the long term. Now I don't have a lot of money to save so this ISA was ideal as you can open it with £1 and can deposit whenever you like up to your yearly maximum of £3000 (I wish). I also like it because it's easy to get your money if you need it with no penalties (other than the obvious loss in interest or income), but it's also sent only as a cheque. This is great for somebody like myself as if...

fatcarrot 02.08.2001 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Accounts

The biggest money saving idea since sliced bread

Advantages: it will save you thousands on your mortgage/debts
Disadvantages: none

...money (debts, earnings and savings) into one account and they all go together to give you one "current" account that you can control with ease. The biggest plus however was still to come - the interest on your debt is calculated daily!! I asked my parents what they thought - and they pointed out that I was old enough to make my own decisions - a sure sign that they didn't approve but didn't want to say so! I did it anyway. I filled in the forms, got a valuer round my flat (which cost me £150), got a solicitor (another £150) and changed my mortgage. Northern Rock were suitably outraged and insisted I give them their £1000 "gift" back. Finally in December I got my chequebook, visa and switch cards and my first statement!! It said I owed Virgin £40,500. My god - I owed them more money than before I started!!! However, now, 18 months...

Xcom 02.06.2001 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Money Mortgages