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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.

  • Sam Wardill says:

    To harry’s point earlier “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’”. Is each year’s ISA not (by definition) a ‘new’ ISA?

    • Genghis says:

      That would be my reading of that term: even if you have had Virgin ISAs prior to 16/17 tax year, if you open this stocks and shares ISA with Virgin you will get the bonus points.

      Of course you can only pay into one ISA per year. Each year’s ISA is a separate wrapper.

      • harry says:

        Sam contributed to last year’s ISA in May this year…he’s not allowed to open another ISA this year because you can’t contribute to 2 different stocks & shares ISAs in the same year…

        • Sam Wardill says:

          Why is it last year’s ISA? Each year’s ISA is a new one

          • harry says:

            That’s where you’re mistaken. Eg you open an Isa in (say) March. You can then pay into it March, April, May etc, contributing in as many months, in as many years as you like – provided you do not exceed the limits each year. It’s just 1 ISA.

            You contributed to last year’s S&S ISA in May this year, meaning you can’t open a new S&S ISA this year. Therefore you cannot open Virgin’s new ISA, earning 12K points.

            Nul points for you, I’m afraid lol

          • Genghis says:

            That’s right Harry. You can only pay into one ISA each tax year. If you paid into an ‘old’ one (ie. Set up before this tax year), tough. That’s your ISA for 16/17 into which you can pay £15k or so in 16/17

        • Genghis says:

          Indeed. Wasn’t paying attention.

          • Sam Wardill says:

            Genghis do you now agree with Harry?

          • Genghis says:

            Yes. You paid into an ‘old’ ISA in 16/17 tax year. Therefore you are not able to open a new one and benefit from the bonus

  • Go says:

    Did anyone take up the recent virgin white credit card promo for 10,000. I did but when my bonus posted today it was only 3000

  • Carlo says:

    Decided upon a Bond, Gilt, UK and Overseas Share Fund this evening. Slow and steady rise after today’s shock .

  • Genghis says:

    Signed up to Virgin Money lounges online and visited the Virgin Lounge on Haymarket, London earlier this afternoon. It’s a decent space with good coffee, average cold drinks and biscuits. Toilets were decent. I’d pop in again for a coffee.

    • Rob says:

      Not been there. Piccadilly probably nicer as standalone, ie not part of a branch, so more like an airport lounge.

  • S879 says:

    Has anyone who signed up on Sunday got their miles yet?

    • Chris says:

      I’ve got my miles today but I’ve only got given 6000 instead of the advertised 12000. After 20 minutes on the phone trying to explain this I am still no further along.

      • S879 says:

        Oh. I will keep an eye out on when mine post. Reading that people got theirs in 2 days I was disappointed that it’s been 5 days and probably won’t post till next week as it’s the weekend now. Hope you manage to get the remaining half.

      • Chris says:

        Just an update. After posting on Virgin’s Facebook page the extra miles appeared!!

  • Peter Taysum says:

    12 000 miles posted

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

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