Mile earning credit card no longer on Virgin site

If they were withdrawing this scheme, shouldn't we have been told about it? How many of us would be switching cards? (hands up!)

[Nottingham Nick]

Why would you want to switch cards now, Claire?

All they have said is that they are not issuing any new cards, and that there will be an announcement soon.

Nick

lets just hope it's not a amex card... we'll never be able to earn points!

Looks like I got my application for the VS card in just in time then - I got my card today (on the "carrier" with all the Flying Club gumph on) so I should still get the 2K miles the first time it is used.

What would really suit me would be a link between VS & Nectar in future - I am racking up Nectar points at a rapid rate thanks to spending money at Sainsburys [on food & fuel] and using the Amex Nectar card which gives you double points on everything at Sainsburys.

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by jetwet1

Originally posted by BelfastFlyer
hmmm I'm not thinking of citi bank... maybe a uk based bank?

Im only thinking multi national because VS serves many countries and a multi national would enable VS to reach more people,though in the past that doesn't seem to have been a priority [n].

Hear! Hear! I'd love a card I would be able to use. The Amex card over here is very restricted and there are no mile earning opportunities on any other card

Originally posted by BelfastFlyer
lets just hope it's not a amex card... we'll never be able to earn points!

bit confused [:?]

You can earn points on AMEX now....

Citibank have recently taken on the credit card processing of Exxon Mobil in the UK ( around £1,500,000,000+ a year ) and have had some pretty horrendous problems. It seems their systems don't particularly like speaking to some of the issuing banks systems [:?] and its the same old "oh its happened again - we are working on it" [V]

Not very clever [n]

David

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by Richard28

Originally posted by BelfastFlyer
lets just hope it's not a amex card... we'll never be able to earn points!

bit confused [:?]

You can earn points on AMEX now....

Personally I think its a bit of an old myth now about AmEx acceptance - yeah a while back the acceptance was not very good, but I rarelyu have to use another card nowadays. For travel (hotels, flights etc) I have no issues at all with AmEx acceptance.

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by Richard28

Originally posted by BelfastFlyer
lets just hope it's not a amex card... we'll never be able to earn points!

bit confused [:?]
You can earn points on AMEX now....

True - if you qualify for Amex's Membership Rewards, you can convert these 1 for 1 into VS miles...

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Why would you want to switch cards now, Claire?

All they have said is that they are not issuing any new cards, and that there will be an announcement soon.

Nick

True, I'm just thinking if there are changes made which mean that spending doesn't earn airmiles. It was my main reason - only real reason - for changing to a Virgin credit card, but yep, I'll be watching carefully to see what's going on.

But hey - if I didn't read this site, then I'd be oblivious to any of this....[ii]

I sincerely hope it's not Amex. I agree more places do accept it now, but there is still the odd one that doesn't (inc John Lewis!) and that's a real pain if you want to choose one card to use for your transactions. Plus our experience of Amex CS is dire.

Originally posted by Kraken
What would really suit me would be a link between VS & Nectar in future - I am racking up Nectar points at a rapid rate thanks to spending money at Sainsburys [on food & fuel] and using the Amex Nectar card which gives you double points on everything at Sainsburys.

I hope not! Its hard enough to find reward flights at the moment. If all nectar collectors are chasing reward seats as well......[n]

I stoped nectar point collecting when I got my FC card. It was much easier to earn flights with VS than nectar, even though there are many more nectar point collecting opportunities.

You can actually get a Virgin flight using nectar points already..although I was quoted over 330,000points for a UC flight.

Originally posted by DylanDog

You can actually get a Virgin flight using nectar points already..although I was quoted over 330,000points for a UC flight.

Yes - unfortunately flights through Travelbag are calculated as each Nectar point = .5p so a £300 Y flight may= 60,000 points but a £3000 UC flight will cost 600,000. Taxes are included though (and the flights are miles earning) so in some cases e.g. a Y class flight off-peak, it may be better to use Nectar than miles.

Phil

Originally posted by RichardMannion

Originally posted by Richard28

Originally posted by BelfastFlyer
lets just hope it's not a amex card... we'll never be able to earn points!

bit confused [:?]

You can earn points on AMEX now....

Personally I think its a bit of an old myth now about AmEx acceptance - yeah a while back the acceptance was not very good, but I rarelyu have to use another card nowadays. For travel (hotels, flights etc) I have no issues at all with AmEx acceptance.

Thanks,
Richard

the myth rings true in good ole norn iron sadly... still lets wait and see

This is a very interesting topic.
I have had my VS Money card for just over three months now. My girlfriend applied soon after me and the literature she got sent out was very different to me, just within a couple of days. On enquiring after the first time she used it, the muppets at MBNA had not set her up for Flying Club and said it couldn't be transferred over! Maybe this was because they weren't creating anymore cards!?

This can only be good news. Atleast Virgin seem to acknowledge its loyal customers and have decided that MBNA are completely useless!!!
They just have to make sure they choose a suitable successor!! Morgan Stanley are very good at what they do!!!!

I would also hope that whatever decision, VS decide to allow existing customers to switch over and still qualify for the 15K companion ticket! If not some of us may be stuck with the card for up to an extra year!!!!

Let me know your thoughts!!!

If they went with another company they would have to do another credit check though, so you could end up getting turned down, especially if you have a card with that bank already.

Hi,

Virgin could transfer all the card holders to another bank without credit checking. This happens a lot and is common.

Patrick

I am pretty sure that it would not be a case of a simple switch over for existing customersfrom one company to another. It would be up to the issuing bank what risks they take on and therefore I am pretty sure that a new credit check would be required. At the end of the day the card is issued by the bank not virgin.

That said I would be surprised if the new card was anything other than MBNA - I would have thought that if Virgin were no longer using MBNA for Flying club cards then the normal none-flying-club virgin cards would also not be being issued anymore.

It looks more like a "relaunch" than an all new programme to me. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised though!

[preiffer]

It'll all depend on whether MBNA are willing to sell the "book" of customers and outstanding debts to the new issuer. Typically when these things happen, IF a transfer is to take place, the new issuer signs up to inheriting the book "warts and all" and therefore accepts the risk that some customers may be below their own scoring requirements.

It would, however, definitely require the customer to sign a new agreement before the new issuer could transfer the debt.

When you sign a credit agreement is has a clause saying that the issuer can transfer the agreement at anytime so not sure they even need a new signature, also I had my Sony card (pre my allegiance to Virgin) transferred from Bank of Scotland to MBNA.

#61514; I then transferred the credit limit to my Virgin card and closed my Sony card!!

[mitchja]

Anyone else notice the odd wording on this months FC statement regarding the new Virgin credit card:

We've launched the new Virgin Atlantic American Express Card from MBNA

What [:?] that makes no sense at all as since when does MBNA issue Amex cards?

There's a link with it but it's just takes you to a blank page on the VS web site so clearly a new card is about to be launched [:?]

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja
Anyone else notice the odd wording on this months FC statement regarding the new Virgin credit card:

We've launched the new Virgin Atlantic American Express Card from MBNA

What [:?] that makes no sense at all as since when does MBNA issue Amex cards?

Looks like they have for a while now, see here:

http://www.mbna.com/europe/creditcards/mbna_amex.html

I got the same link: http://www.virginatlantic.com/creditcard it doesnt do much though!

I wouldn't be too happy if the current card is replaced by an Amex. Why would MBNA change from MC to Amex, what benefits would they or we get from this change?

I understand what LROM says about the availability but I do know that many small local independent retailers don't accept Amex.

I've found that the only card accepted in a lot of restaurants in Germany and Austria is Amex.