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well for those of you with a virgin credit card there are letters on the way with changes in store
i got a letter today and basically this is the score
as of the 31st dec the red virgin flying club mastercard will be upgrading to a black virgin atlantic credit card
and you will no longer be able to earn miles on your existing mastercard[msnmad]
the letter is offering to upgrade to the new black card now (american express) and there is a new increased annual fee of £115 (payable on your yearly renewal date)
it has no mention at all in regards to them offering a card that doesn't have a fee attached to it anymore
to sweeten the news they are offering 10,000 bonus miles when you switch and spend on your new card before 15th sept
plus 4 miles for every £1 until the 31st July 2007 and then 2 miles per £ after that
6 miles for every £ spend on virgin atlantic flights and holidays
complimentary companion flight (once a year) by spending £7,500 by the anniversary of your existing card opening
two prem econ upgrades if you spend £10,000 by the anniversary of your existing card opening
personally for me i think that i will switch mine and my husbands card over and get my bonus miles but will cancel one of them before the next annual fee is due
Mizzy
[sick][sick] The interest rate on the black card is 37.1% , so not for anyone who doesn't pay it off every month.
We currently have a virgin mastercard.
A quick shufti around the net, and this looks like the best deal for air-miles and upgrades. The equivilant BA card only pays 1.5 miles per every £. The mbna - delta only 1 per pound. I used to have american express but got fed up with 1 in 4 shops not taking it, so dumped it. Does anyone know if this still the case?
Thats sounds a pretty good deal to me.
I currently pay £80 for the 2 miles per £ card and pay off my balance each month. I have spent over £20000 on my Virgin card since September so an extra £35 per year for all those extra miles sounds like a good deal to me.
jillizzy
03-07-2006, 16:39
Mizzy - there is also a white card that doesn't have a fee attached. No doubt letters will be sent out about these too, but I would imagine they want to offer the black one first. The VA website has details with a link. The upgrades to PE that you refer to are with redemption miles for an economy tickets, i.e. you need to use miles for an economy ticket and then upgrade with the offer if you have spent the required amount on the credit card and then the fare classes have to be available in both Econ and PE to do this. 5K spend for one ticket upgrade or 10K for two each year.
Wilf I know there are still some places that don't accept Amex (the one that annoys me most is John Lewis) but Tesco, Sainsburys and some other supermarkets do now. I think the list is growing - if you check the money supermarket website there is a list of companies that accept it.
Jill
The reason a lot of outlets won't accecpt Amex is that their commission charges are much higher than Visa and Mastercard. I really had to fight to get our charges down to a reasonable level so we could take AMEx.
chrisflowers
03-07-2006, 21:40
I wonder if this will affect us if we already have one Amex card, collecting membership points, which give good deals for exchanging to various airline milage programmes.[msnoo]
jillizzy
03-07-2006, 22:01
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrisflowers
I wonder if this will affect us if we already have one Amex card, collecting membership points, which give good deals for exchanging to various airline milage programmes.[msnoo]
[/quote]
Even though it is an Amex card - it is still organised by MBNA and overbranded as a Virgin Card. The original Amex card is not associated.
Jill
ah thats good . we just got the amex card that gives nectar points.
i already have 2 mbna cards so was planning to close one and open a virgin card . i will watch this space
I'm really annoyed. We only got our Virgin Mastercards last November - took us nearly a year to get through the bureaucratic mess, they sent us the wrong cards the fist time and then because they had already issued cards (albeit the wrong ones) refused to issue the correct ones. Now they're changing them and hardly anywhere accepts American Express, at least not where I buy my groceries!
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrisflowers
I wonder if this will affect us if we already have one Amex card, collecting membership points, which give good deals for exchanging to various airline milage programmes.[msnoo]
[/quote]
Chris,
is yours the traditional amex card, ie a charge card? The new mbna version is a variety of the amex credit card.
jackie greaves
04-07-2006, 20:12
Thanks for the warning, not sure what we will do. We use our Virgin Mastercards all the time but don't pay an annual fee. £115 sounds alot to me. I will wait for the letter to arrive and give it some more thought.
we use our cards to earn miles so we can upgrade for cheaper using miles plus money
but as we could only possibly go to florida every two years then that would mean we'd be paying £460 in fee's to keep both cards up and running for those two years
have decided to keep both and get the bonus 10,000 miles on each and then ditch mine a few months before the fee renewal date
i've made the automated call and switched them over to the new cards today
Mizzy
chrisflowers
04-07-2006, 21:07
yes Wilfy, we have AMEX gold cards which are supposed to be debit, but perform as credit cards in every way.
I have just used the Virgin 08000 number to change my card to the new Amex Black Card. It looks like blackmail to get us to change, but the benefits seem reasonable.
I wonder if we will get normal AMEX black card priviledges like lounge access???
[msnsmile2][msnsmile2]
jackie greaves
05-07-2006, 15:40
We have received our letters this moring offering us the white card, which has no annual fee but the miles per £ spent as not so good, also you only get 5000 bonus miles for switching. Not sure wether to up-grade to the black and pay the annual fee.
jackie greaves
05-07-2006, 17:30
Have phoned Virgin and after speaking with 5 different people they have confirmed that I can't upgrade to the black card only the white one. If I want a black one I will have to fill in a new application and will not qualify for the incentives being offered to existing customers. Decision made[msnmad]
thats such a shame Jackie, but at least they are still giving you some bonus miles to switch, not that you have much of a choice anyway
will have to keep supping the wine Jackie to earn extra miles [msnwink]
Mizzy
Signed up yesterday to change over to the black one. Luckily I always have another CC in my wallet just in case, will have to see who won't accept the new one.
jackie greaves
05-07-2006, 20:16
Mizzy you have just reminded me that I haven't received my miles for the last order of wine. Will chase it up now. Will need to order some more soon as well, after all that World Cup football.[msnembarrased]
Sharon G
07-07-2006, 00:12
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by jackie greaves
Thanks for the warning, not sure what we will do. We use our Virgin Mastercards all the time but don't pay an annual fee. £115 sounds alot to me. I will wait for the letter to arrive and give it some more thought.
[/quote]
oh this is me also!! I have the "black" Virgin mastercard but don't pay an annual fee!!!!:D
Does anyone know what will happen to all the existing miles acccumalated on the red card if we switch?
Thanks
Kaz[msneek]
they get transfered over Kaz
Mizzy