Virgin Money Poor Service

[Mick W]

Have just spent a frustrating two month experience attempting to get a Virgin Money Credit Card (the free flights version)

Apart from having a number of existing credit cards (MC Visa Diners etc and owing nothing on them) I was subjected to a 2 month process of trying to establish my income, my assets and of course my identity all of which in the end after drip feeding me the lack of progress and requesting an inordinate amount of information my application was refused.

I'm still not sure why and when I asked why I was put through to a further two employees who gave me the same answer. Something about it being for possibly a number of reasons. I was then told to write a letter to a post box in Sydney.

A very frustrating process to say the least. I was holding off booking some Virgin flights in the anticipation of using the card but now there is no point in accessing the Virgin flights. I'll be looking elsewhere.

On reflection I wonder whether Virgin Blue understands the impact that one other part of the Virgin empire can have on their own operation. A multi branding strategy may have its benefits but in the area of customer care you are only as good as your weakest link.

 

[NYCguy]

Yeah, well, the Virgin cards are issued by Citi, who are a bunch of bungling imbecilies, so no surprises with the above at all.

 

[Diesellife]

See it in another perspective... you no longer need to deal with citibank no more...

I cancelled my citibank card long time ago because of the endless loop from philippine to singapore to malaysia to india. The phone conversation travelled so far and yet no one in the "world" could solve a simple problem.

 

[jsd]

Adding to what NYC guy said, Citi don't just issue the card, all calls regarding the Virgin Money cards are handled by their call centre as well :shock: (I'm not sure of the location, but its not Australia)

My advice would be to send an email to the customer care team in Sydney ([email protected]) I've dealt with them before regarding the Virgin Saver account and their response was prompt and friendly like most Virgin companies are.

Try that and see how you go

 

[stuartfaz]

I cancelled my card last month for this very reason. The Citi call centres are just woeful. I called at least 10 times to get them to follow up on a promotion they had and at the end of the day it just wasn't worth it.

 

[coolsteps]

I send them many secure online messages and they never answer my question directly and take their time replying or just ignore it. they use the exact citibank interface system which is terrible and doesn’t accept certain characters so you need to restart typing your whole message a few times before it go’s through. terrible secure messaging site that needs an overhual.​

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Have just spent a frustrating two month experience attempting to get a Virgin Money Credit Card (the free flights version)

How frustrating are this mob - I too have been knocked back 2 times for Virgin Card - both times I received a letter on Virgin letterhead signed by Mark Rayner - Head of Virgin Credit Cards and Savings - saying 'Unfortunately we have to say no'.

I sent back to My Rayner a copy of following docs:
1. My invitation to join Amex Centurion
2. Copy of last Statement for Amex Plat showing monthly spend of $30K and previous months payment $28K
3. Copy of Westpac SQ Amex / Visa Statement showing $10K - $12K monthly spend / payment
4. Copy of NAB Qantas Plat Amex / Visa showing $5K monthly spend / payment
5. Copy of ANZ Qantas Plat Amex / Visa showing $2K monthly spend / payment
6. Covering letter congratulating them on their fabulously professional entity being so prudent as to reject my application when above listed 2 bob operations saw fit to issue to me.

No response - as Gomer Pyle would say - 'Surprise.........Surprise.........Surprise'

 

[NM]

I sent back to My Rayner a copy of following docs:
1. My invitation to join Amex Centurion
2. Copy of last Statement for Amex Plat showing monthly spend of $30K and previous months payment $28K
3. Copy of Westpac SQ Amex / Visa Statement showing $10K - $12K monthly spend / payment
4. Copy of NAB Qantas Plat Amex / Visa showing $5K monthly spend / payment
5. Copy of ANZ Qantas Plat Amex / Visa showing $2K monthly spend / payment
6. Covering letter congratulating them on their fabulously professional entity being so prudent as to reject my application when above listed 2 bob operations saw fit to issue to me.

I suggest you are a victim of a common practice at credit providrers, in this case a victim of Amex's manipulation of the credit checking process. Virgin Money are seeing all those Amex cards and the applications for credit associated with them all showing in your credit file, and that is what is raising the red flag. Having lots of other cards is a BAD thing as far as they are concerned.

Its common these days for credit card applications to not include an entry for the amount of credit you are seeking. So the credit card provider will offer you a high credit limit in the hope that when you apply for credit from other providers they will percieve you are already at your lending limit and they will reject your application. Its their way of locking you in to their product and not allowing you to get credit form other providers.

Additionally, many credit card providers will treat as a red-flag the fact that someone has applied for 2 or more credit facilities in the previous 12 months. So if some of those other cards have resulted in entries in your credit file indicating credit applications in that timeframe, then its quite likely the reason for the rejection.

So telling Virgin Money that you have lots of other credit cards is only going to strengthen their position of credit refusal, not convince them to change their mind.

 

[001andrew]

Same here, just spents weeks trying to explain my whole life, even had them call my accountant to verify everything twice,

Letter from this phantom Mark Rayner guy below,

We're unable to approve your Virgin High Flyer Credit Card application for you at this time. Our credit approval is based on an overall assesment of all information you supplied to us in your application, so we're unable to provide specific reasons for our decision.

I am a gold Velocity member and they still have no idea.

Maybe my credit history is too good for them?

Sad isnt it?

 

[ric007]

I also experienced the same issues. I only have Westpac altitude card and a linked Amex credit card. I never had any credit card issues and always pay on time. I have other companies sending me credit card applications wanting my business all the time.

Being a professional on a good income, I did not see why I would be rejected. I tried their online application, and that failed (something wrong with their server not displaying any reference number upon submission). I tried twice, and then had to call them up and spend about 25 minutes to pass them all my personal details. I then had to provide other documentation and send it via post. A week later, I got a call (at a bad time) saying that need further information. I told them to please send me an email to advise me exactly what they need, as I am not at my desk and won't be able to remember exactly what they need.

This email never came. I then got a letter to advise my application has been rejected. I then contacted them explaining my situation. The staff told me to try writing a letter explaining these circumstances and that I would not be able to speak to the credit card processing team directly to find out the reason.

I have since received a letter signed by Mark Rayner saying "we still can't say yes". They still cannot provide me a "reason" as to why my credit card application failed? Here I am willing to assist them in whatever ways to get my application through. I am going to give them business. But it seems they are not interested for whatever unknown reason.

What a waste of time, money, effort, and very poor service that reasons cannot be told so that I can assist them. How can i help them, if they can't tell me the reason? Tip: Take your business elsewhere and not waste your time. I have since shredded up Mark "the phantom" Rayner's letter.

 

[Coathanger]

My advice would be to send an email to the customer care team in Sydney ([email protected]) I've dealt with them before regarding the Virgin Saver account and their response was prompt and friendly like most Virgin companies are.

After delay in processing and dealing with both the Citibank verification and decisioning teams I posted on the Virgin Money Australia Facebook page.

They asked me to email the address above and amazingly my application was approved and cards sent out by Express Post within several days.

 

[DuncanC]

I spent a long time getting a Citibank card, but the pain in getting anything sorted out once I got the card was even worse. Woeful, woeful call centre. The Citibank website is slow & clumsy as well, which seems ridiculous given how global the bank is. Eventually called to cancel the card and they refunded my annual fee to keep me with them, which I did for the 24 hours it took me to withdraw the refund.

Consider it a bullet dodged.