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LAST CHANCE: 12,000 Virgin Flying Club miles for opening an ISA

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Here is a reminder that you have just 48 hours left to take advantage of this very generous deal from Virgin Money.

With the new tax year now underway, Virgin Money is offering an impressive 12,000 Flying Club miles to anyone who opens a new stocks and shares ISA.

See here for full details.

Virgin Money

This is a VERY attractive offer given that the usual deal is just 5,000 or 6,000 miles.  The offer runs until 26th June, ie Sunday.

There are two ways to invest. You can either invest a lump sum of £1,000, or make a £75 monthly investment for at least six months. In either case, you must leave the account open for six months or the miles may be clawed back.

There are six different investment funds to choose from.

Now, this is obviously an investment and so could lead to the loss of your capital.

The less risky option is £75 x 6 months = £450 invested. If you valued the miles at £120, you would still come out on top with a 20% fall in the market by the time you exit.

The £1,000 lump sum investment is clearly riskier – the value of the miles is wiped out with just a 12% fall in the market.

You cannot open this ISA if you already have a ‘stocks and shares’ ISA for the current tax year. You can open one if you only have a ‘cash’ ISA for the current tax year and have not invested your full £15,240.

As always with financial issues, take proper advice if necessary.

In general, the miles post VERY quickly, often within a week.

There is an additional upside to having a Virgin Money product – you are able to use the Virgin Money lounges in London and various other cities across the UK.  They are surprisingly pleasant and you will occasionally finding me working in the Piccadilly Virgin Money lounge which I reviewed here.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Comments (57)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alex says:

    With the Brexit confirmed is it wise to buy a stocks and shares isa?

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      There’s certainly a school of thought that you should be buying when everyone else is selling…

  • harry says:

    Sainsbury’s travel money does not seem up with events…rates to buy holiday money same as yesterday?

    • Nick says:

      Thanks Harry. Just ordered some USD @ 1.44.

      • harry says:

        let’s hope we get them

        strange that Travelex runs it for Sainsbury’s and the Travelex site is up with events but not Sainsbury’s

        • Chris says:

          Yeah starting to doubt it myself confirmation still hasn’t arrived

          • harry says:

            print your confirmation details?

            no email here either but I made a note of my details/ reference

          • Chris says:

            Wasn’t near a printer so couldn’t print them but did screen grab my confirmation and confirmation # so fingers crossed

          • harry says:

            Got my confirmation email 🙂

            10% better rate than you can obtain right now

          • Andrew* says:

            1.33 now…

          • harry says:

            that’s USD I guess…

      • Nick says:

        Just received my confirmation email from Sainsbury for my USD @ 1.44

        • Genghis says:

          Nice. I tried to get in there this morning but website didn’t appear to be functioning properly.

  • Yemi says:

    Hi Nick where did you buy from @that rate?

  • Alex W says:

    Is there anyone in their right mind who is going to invest in a stocks & shares ISA now after his Brexit disaster. I opened one last week on the assumption that I would smash in a few £k thus morning to jump on the surge. I won’t be doing that now…

    • harry says:

      but £75/ month is pound cost averaging so (for new ISAs) your risk is fairly low that any extreme change in a month will hurt you

      many of us went for the lowest risk Virgin ISA (100% bonds & gilts) and we’re doing rather well out of these events – flight to safety

    • the_real_a says:

      Brexit opportunity you mean? Our products have just become 10% cheaper to our foreign customers, which puts us a significant advantage. The only question now is margin or volume.

    • Temp says:

      By the same token, there will be some people investing now to take advantage of any upside. Yes, there is plenty of uncertainty, but the Ftse100 was 500 points higher a year ago and 200 a few days ago (although personally I believe it is likely to drop further). But as other posters have said, there are lower risk options than all-share funds…

  • Luxparkbaby says:

    Does anyone know if this is a once only opportunity or can you get 12,000 miles now by opening an ISA in 16/17 even if you took up the same Virgin Money offer for the last tax year?

    • harry says:

      You can get it every year but you need to observe the strict ISA rules, ie if you even paid £1 into your old ISA this tax year, you can’t open another one (I think!).

      From Virgin POV, no problem opening 1 ISA every year & getting the points

      • Mycity says:

        Harry does that apply if you have a virgin ISA from last tax year 14/15 running, ie will you still get the points this year tax 15/16

        • harry says:

          it’s contributions that count, ie the date you pay in

          you can have multiple isas ‘running’ ie in existence, but my understanding is you can only pay into 1 stocks n shares isa each tax year

          so if you stopped contributing to isa #1 last tax year, you’ll be fine to start isa #2 this tax year

          and get the points of course

          • Sam Wardill says:

            The Ts & Cs state “This offer is open to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members who invest in a new Virgin Money Stocks and Shares ISA from 28
            April until 26 June 2016.” I had a 2015 /16 ISA which I paid in £75 / month. There were 6 payments in 2015/16 tax year. A payment was also made 1st May. I then stopped payments because Virgin Money told me I would not get the 12,000 points. I’m debating whether to restart payments and fight Virgin Money for the points. I think they will have trouble refusing them to me under the Ts & Cs of the offer. What do others think?

          • harry says:

            and you don’t stand a snowball’s of getting the 12K points from Virgin because you didn’t (couldn’t, legally) open ‘a new Virgin Money Stocks and Shares ISA from 28 April until 26 June 2016’

  • Alan says:

    Thanks to the disastrous Leave vote you can now pick up most shares for at least a 10% discount now so perhaps a good deal. Oh except for the fact that the UK is about to get its credit rating downgraded and the pound has plummeted…

    • CC says:

      Plus there might be further drops when more details emerge of the terms of exit and how long it will take etc.

  • Nick M says:

    Roughly how long does it take for the points to post? – I signed up last week, so interested to have a rough idea of when I should expect them…

    • harry says:

      2 days for both of us

      • Ben says:

        Hmmm, am I being a numpty or have they changed things – I can only see an offer for 6,000 miles for the 27th onwards?

  • Dave R says:

    If opting for the £75 x 6 months investment, are the points credited after signing up or after the 6th month?

    • CC says:

      I did the 75 a month beginning of May and the miles posted very quickly. I don’t remember how long exactly but within a week I think.

    • Genghis says:

      A couple of days after signing up. They’ll post before your first DD taken

      • Danny says:

        Opened one late evening on 22nd June and the 12,000 miles have already just posted!

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