Do you know you can get a sign-up bonus on BOTH the Virgin Atlantic credit cards?

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• Dominic says:

  8 Oct8 October 07:00

  I have the Virgin Atlantic white card. Never been in the situation where the card issuer has cancelled the contract.

  What happens to existing customers? Would they be transferred to the new issuer or cards cancelled and need to reapply?

  Quite keen to keep hold of this as it’s one of my non-amex options.

  • Genghis says:

    8 Oct8 October 08:29

    If like DC, you’ll be given a poor MBNA card. There will be no “transfer” option. Ie a Virgin Money VFC card will be a new application.

    • Alan says:

      8 Oct8 October 11:43

      Although that’s a good thing as means new sign-up bonus 😛

      • Dominic says:

        8 Oct8 October 12:48

        I hope there is a decent one! At least it’ll be easy to hit just using a visa/mastercard.

• Simon says:

  8 Oct8 October 07:13

  I’ve also managed to get the sign up bonus on both the Creation IHG cards. I had the free one and they invited me to apply for the £99 one. Not sure what would happen if you had the £99 one and applied for the free one.

  • EwanG says:

    8 Oct8 October 07:48

    I (and others here) have the IHG Premiun card (with Creation) and were invited or opted to take out the IHG free card and received the bonus points on both cards, so that way works too!

    • Alan says:

      8 Oct8 October 11:44

      Yep, did the same a couple of weeks ago via secure messaging. Totally painless, reply received within a couple of days. Sadly no retention offer, but didn’t expect one!

• TripRep says:

  8 Oct8 October 07:34

  “Remember that MBNA is almost certainly losing the Virgin credit cards soon”

  Rob – Any evidence for forecasting how *soon* this will be? Or is it analogous to the rumbling Volcano in Bali?

  What notice/grace period are current Black card holders likely to be given?

  Will they still honour any PE upgrade vouchers earnt if the MBNA deal ends before a holder’s anniversary year? (when vouchers are issued to the VS FC account)

  • Lev441 says:

    8 Oct8 October 08:08

    Hope they will honour the PE upgrade vouchers…!!!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Oct8 October 08:55

      I hope Virgin Money start offering a 2-4-1 voucher to rival the BAPP

      • TripRep says:

        8 Oct8 October 09:02

        +1 –

        Virgin Money staff if you’re reading, that would be awesome.!

        • Alan says:

          8 Oct8 October 11:45

          I hope they don’t! Much prefer a Lloyds-style offering. Definitely would be good to cover UC though.

      • Lev441 says:

        8 Oct8 October 14:58

        Or upgrade vouchers which include upper…!!

      • David says:

        8 Oct8 October 18:42

        There are many people that the 241 voucher is not good for.

        I much prefer the Lloyds upgrade voucher route, similar to the current Virgin PE upgrades but enabling you to go all the way to J.

  • Andrew says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:08

    “Almost certainly” is about as close as anyone can say given the information that is already out there.

    MBNA Diamond Club cardholders got exactly one month notice of closure of the scheme.

  • Rob says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:23

    The existing cards are likely to live on for a while, as happened with IHG / Barclays.

    Once they are closed to new entrants, I would be wary of starting a new card year. Again, look at IHG / Barclays and the free night.

  • GJB1 says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:47

    Anyone got any experience of applying for these cards recently? – tried to apply for both myself and my wife yesterday and rejected. Experian scores in the high 990’s, not a huge number of live credit cards, checked on Barclaycard and Amex eligibility checks and all good. Seems odd, unless their eligibility check is seeing something in our credit records that no-one else is, or just that they don’t want new applicants.

    • Mikee says:

      8 Oct8 October 12:04

      Posted this in bits earlier in the week as I was in the Clubhouse last week:

      The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Amex/Visa additional signup bonuses have now been pulled (previously you could get an extra 13,500 miles on top of the 18,500 sign-up bonus on the Black Card if signing-up with a rep in the Clubhouse at LHR T3 – the White card also had an extra Clubhouse bonus of about 8,000).
      According to the Virgin rep in the Clubhouse, the deal has been pulled as Virgin are “renegotiating their deal with Amex” so another sign this card could be changing soon.
      HOWEVER, you can actually still get the extra bonus miles by applying by phone with MBNA and quoting Virgin Clubhouse Black or White promotion (0800 056 5576). Not sure how long this will last but suggest calling and signing-up asap. I told them on the phone I had seen the Clubhouse promotion a couple of weeks ago and wanted to apply. They found the appropriate promo and talked me through the application in about 15 minutes.
      Note that for the black card which I successfully applied for, 18,500 miles are credited by MBNA on 1st spend on the card and the additional 13,500 are added directly by Virgin within 3 months – card fee is £140.

      • roberto says:

        8 Oct8 October 12:18

        Was told that the black card cant be done over the phone only online so no extra 13500 bonus unfortunatly.

• TripRep says:

  8 Oct8 October 07:39

  Anyone tried signing up for the white card in a LGW/LHR VS UC lounge?

  Enhanced sign up bonus, like the Black)?

  • Ed says:

    8 Oct8 October 07:49

    for anyone who is wondering the lounge sign up bonus for the black card was 38000 miles last month , so definitely worth signing up when you are passing through the airport.

    • roberto says:

      8 Oct8 October 08:03

      Someone commented this week that the extra lounge bonus has been pulled.

      • Lev441 says:

        8 Oct8 October 08:07

        Asked about it when I was in there last Tuesday and there was no offer for the card st the time..

    • Mycity says:

      8 Oct8 October 08:04

      There was a report on Flyer Talk I think last week that the enhanced sign up miles have stopped at the lounge, they were told it’s because the licence has been lost with Amex.

• Tom Lee-Fox says:

  8 Oct8 October 07:51

  Does anyone know with the black card how the £140 fee is payable? I.e if I took one, got the miles and cancelled after 6 months is the £150 fee still payable or would it only be £70?

  • Gomigo says:

    8 Oct8 October 07:56

    There is no prorata calculation of annual fees and refund with MBNA. You will certainly loose your annual fees irrespective of when you cancel it.

  • Nigel says:

    8 Oct8 October 08:36

    The £140 fee comes out of your first statement-In effect it’s your first transaction.

    I’ve churned both the Black and White cards several times, usually get the black one, meet the spend, then get the white one and do likewise.

    Once the White one is achieved, close.
    The repeat with the Mrs…

    Never needed to with the IHG card but may do so as circumstances have changed.

• Ronan says:

  8 Oct8 October 08:03

  I know Virgin tend to have increased sign up bonus on the cards sometimes. Anybody know when the next increased bonus is likely to occur?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:09

    Believe AMEX has pulled the plug so unlikely to enhance the bonus as they won’t want to encourage new sign ups.

• Doug says:

  8 Oct8 October 08:40

  PE upgrade vouchers. Do you have to pay for the second year to keep them, I gather you only get them at the end of the year, anyone know how the timing works?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Oct8 October 08:58

    You get them on your anniversary and as long as you don’t use the card after this date, I stopped a week before to be sure, you will get the second year £140 refunded.

    • Mycity says:

      8 Oct8 October 09:14

      TLG, if you canned the card a week before renewal did you still get your upgrade vouchers posted onto your Flying Club account?

      • Mycity says:

        8 Oct8 October 09:15

        Oppssorry that’s TGL

      • TripRep says:

        8 Oct8 October 09:20

        MyCity, I read “Stopped a week before” as in stopped spending on it a week before, ie then cancelling the card on it’s anniversary date.

        Its a strategy I intend to follow…

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Oct8 October 09:24

        yep TripRep is correct stopped spending a week before and cancelled after the anniversary to get my £140 back no questions asked.

  • TripRep says:

    8 Oct8 October 08:58

    I cancel on my renewal date over the phone once I have a guarantee that the vouchers are there in my VS FC account.

    Heard recent feedback that you won’t be charged the £140 (or it will be refunded) for the 2nd year if you don’t spend on the card after anniversary date.

  • Jamie Carter says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:11

    I’ve found the PE upgrades usually post into your FC account a few days before your card Anniversary so you should have plenty of time to cancel it before the next annual fee applies. I’ve cancelled on the card renewal date before and haven’t had to pay the fee as it hadn’t hit the account yet. However this year I got the date wrong and called up two days late. They treated the annual fee as a transaction and said I had therefore used the card. They offered me 5000 FC miles to keep the card or a £128.33 (11/12 pro rata) refund of the fee. I cancelled it as I have my fingers crossed for one last increased sign-up bonus.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Oct8 October 09:29

      Did you ring back for another agent or escalate to a supervisor? I know it’s only £12 but the principal of trying to count their own fee as you making a transaction.

• Doug M says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:32

  Thanks all. I’ll set a reminder for a week ahead of the anniversary.

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