New Virgin Vital Current Account – is it really worth switching to?
The recent account pays desire on £100,000, and offers reductions on Virgin Trains as effectively as free coffee and treats in metropolis centre ‘Virgin Lounges’ 
Picture: Alamy
Virgin Income is helping to improve competition in the banking business with the roll out of its new desire-paying out present account.
The challenger bank, which has offered the present account to citizens in Scotland and Northern Eire considering that July, confirmed that the account would be provided to people living in England and Wales from April.
The ” Virgin Crucial Current Account ” pays 1pc curiosity on balances up to £100,000, provides totally free income withdrawals from most large avenue money equipment, and can be managed on the web, in a Put up Office, or in 1 of Virgin Money’s 75 branches.
There will be no overdraft facility in buy to assist consumers “remain in management of their cash”. Clients will be blocked from going in the crimson and payments rejected, without having charges used.
Consumers of Virgin Money will also obtain benefits this kind of as special discounts on Virgin Trains and obtain to 1 of five Virgin Lounges , located in city centres where consumers can get free beverages and snacks, and can use the lounge’s iPads and Wi-Fi.
From April, shoppers can go in branch to apply for the recent account, or change on the internet employing the Current Account Switching Services, which says it guarantees quick and trouble-totally free bank account transfers.
Virgin Money explained it was looking to produce a lot more present accounts over time.
Our verdict
In an business dominated by the Large 4 banking companies – Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and HSBC – which control a few quarters of the recent account marketplace, it truly is wonderful to see challenger banks coming into the combine and assisting to improve competition in the industry by providing consumers a broader decision.
Virgin Money’s account, which aims to provide “simplicity, fairness and transparency”, is a decent item, specifically as it offers 1pc curiosity on balances up to £100,000.
Although higher in-credit score balances can be identified in other places, this sort of as Nationwide’s FlexDirect Recent Account giving 5pc on balances up to £2,five hundred or Santander’s 123 Current Account paying out 3pc on balances up to £20,000, Virgin is giving consumers with bigger cost savings pots the chance to obtain a pretty first rate return on their cash.
>> A lot more: Our choose of the ideal cash Isa ‘Nisa’ rates
Virgin buyers with financial savings of £50,000, for instance, would make £500, ahead of tax, in curiosity more than the calendar year. Placing the greatest of £2,five hundred into Nationwide’s account, which pays 1pc, will give savers desire of £125 a yr, before tax. Of system, a sum of £50,000 could generate a lot more somewhere else with the very best instant entry savings account paying 1.41pc (from Countrywide Counties). Putting £50,000 into this account would receive curiosity of £705, prior to tax, more than the 12 months, considerably much more than the interest gained with Virgin’s account.
We continue to be to be certain of the benefit of the Virgin Lounges provided only a portion of the inhabitants reside or operate in practical distance of a single.
What other new choices are there?
The Publish Workplace is an additional large-profile service provider that lately entered the existing account marketplace. In August, the supplier said it would be giving recent accounts in far more than 230 branches throughout the place by the finish of the year. These days, there are three hundred branches that give encounter-to-confront consultations with customers. Put up Workplace existing accounts should be opened in-branch.
News Company Income lately rated the two existing accounts , which are provided by the Financial institution of Ireland, as mediocre.
The Standard account is fee-totally free but provides couple of perks, aside from a aggressive rate for overdrafts at 14.9pc. There are no income incentives for switching, no desire on credit history balances, and consumer service is untested.
The Publish Office’s Control account aids these who are regularly hit with bank charges for skipped payments, but expenses £5 a thirty day period.
>> A lot more: Which financial institution need to I switch to?
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