Virgin Atlantic tweaks its credit card rules
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Virgin Atlantic announced a change to its credit card rules this week. This will only impact a very small number of cardholders, but I think they are disproportionately HfP readers.
The spending on which you can earn miles per month is now capped at your monthly credit limit.
What this means is that you cannot cycle your credit limit mid-month. Well, you can, but you won’t earn any miles if you do.
Imagine you have a £10,000 credit limit but spend £30,000 per month on Google or Facebook advertising for your business, as I know quite a few readers do:
on the 1st you charge £10,000 and pay it off on the 9th
on the 10th you charge another £10,000 and pay it off on the 19th
on the 20th you charge another £10,000 and pay it off on the 29th
At the moment, this person would (on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard) earn 45,000 miles per month on £30,000 of spending, despite having a £10,000 credit limit.
Going forward, this person would only earn 15,000 miles per month, since the spend on which miles can be earned is capped at their £10,000 credit limit.
However, if Virgin Money agreed to increase their credit limit to £30,000, they could continue to earn 45,000 miles per month.
It is worth noting that having a cap on cycling your limit is not unusual. Some card companies ban the practice outright. Capital On Tap, I believe, limits you to double your credit limit per month on its generous Avios card.
You can find out more about the Virgin Atlantic credit cards here. Despite this change, they are still easily the most generous cards on the market, with 0.75 Flying Club miles per £1 on the free card and 1.5 miles per £1 on the £160 paid card. There are generous sign-up bonuses too.
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 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):
Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard
18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review
Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard
3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend 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.)
