End of MBNA Virgin Card / Miles Earnings

Just got the promised letter from MBNA. The bullet points are...

From 6th July - last date you will earn miles on your account.
From 7th July - you will earn cash-back (unlimited, at 0.5%)
From July - you will get a new MBNA Horizon cash-back VISA card to replace your Virgin one(s). There will be no annual fee for this card or fees for using abroad.

I might accept the new card as a back-up but will switch from AMEX to new Virgin MasterCard from 6th July.

Got that too. My John Lewis card gives me better cashback so farewell MBNA.

I've had the letter too - only other bullet point to note is for those with the Black VS Amex. Partial refund of the last annual fee will be paid to your account by the end of July, as long as your account remains open.

Will probably have to go down the Amex Gold Rewards credit card route moving forward with the VS Mastercard as the backup card.

I got my letter this morning.
It only just made sense for me to pay £140 for the black to get double miles so going over to the Virgin Money I have just applied for the free card. I guess I'll just have to buy some miles in the future.
Dick D

Firstly I wont be keeping the new card.

Secondly the main issue for me is that the card will close about 3 weeks before my annual renewal, so I probably wont get any pro rata refund. BUT I have met the minimum spend needed (months ago) for the award of 2 PE upgrade vouchers. These are normally issued a few days after the annual renewal date. So will I get them ?????

******* UPDATE - I've spoken with MBNA, they tell me that on the 6th July, if you have met the required minimum spend for either PE upgrade voucher(s) or companion voucher then these will still be awarded within 4 weeks of the 6th July. So for me that'll mean I'll have 4 PE upgrade vouchers in my account for about a month. Which is great news as I was going to use the two there already and have to pay full PE miles for two other tickets. Now I can apply all 4 vouchers and just use Econ miles.

No letter for me yet but there is a comprehensive piece on Head for Points about the horizon card.

For those that have got their letters did they

(a) retain your existing credit limit (not asking anyone to disclose their limit)
(b) make you a 'cash incentive' offer to stay with them

Credit limit was not mentioned on my letter. The £55 incentive was, it’s received as a credit to your cashback which is awarded every January

Hi all, I've had the letter this morning and its caught me on the back foot as I was up to date on proposed changes. I have the black pay Amex / Visa card now & my main concern is that the Virgin Mastercard (If i decide to aply for one), will only now offer one reward flight per year, thus not much use on its own.

Is anyone aware of a better alternative that will allow for two upgrades per year?

Thanks
Steve

I haven’t had a letter yet, but no doubt it will arrive soon. I do feel quite saddened - it’s the end of an era. I don’t see that I’ll want the new card, so it’s probwbly be over to the dark side. Does anyone know how long vs air miles accumulated will remain valid?

catsilversword, the miles in your VS account remain valid for three years after the last transaction date in your account, so you can prolong the life by making a small Shops Away purchase every now and again, or buying miles or a miles booster, or if you fly They're very easy to keep alive.

I got the letter from MBNA today, too. No mention of a cash incentive, and the cash back isn't enough to make me want to spend on the card, so I'll be switching to the new VS Mastercard soon. I'll hang on as I want any vouchers I am owed. I already earned the companion voucher so I think I'll be due the two PE upgrades. They're tricky for me to use but you never know.

catsilversword, the miles in your VS account remain valid for three years after the last transaction date in your account, so you can prolong the life by making a small Shops Away purchase every now and again, or buying miles or a miles booster, or if you fly They're very easy to keep alive.

Thanks!!!

I got the letter from MBNA today, too. No mention of a cash incentive, and the cash back isn't enough to make me want to spend on the card, so I'll be switching to the new VS Mastercard soon. I'll hang on as I want any vouchers I am owed. I already earned the companion voucher so I think I'll be due the two PE upgrades. They're tricky for me to use but you never know.

No mention of an Incentive or Credit Limit on mine or OH's. Will not bother with their card; 1p for every £2 spend is not enough incentive to bother. We both already applied for and got our Virgin Money Cards. Will use immediately to get the sign up bonus, then continue to use the VS AMEX till 6th July. Glad I paid for our flights to Canada with the Virgin Amex card yesterday though.

Apparently I’m not eligible for the new virgin money cards so I have decided to start churning the Amex gold and Amex Platinum cards for the reward points then convert them to VS miles

Had my letters today. My letter states the fee for the Black card will not be charged in June 2018 - my anniversary date.

I am going to keep the replacement VISA cards as having retired my new income is not what is was so for a new card application I would get a lower credit limit.

I have just been approved for a Virgin Money card though so will use this to get some miles. For me the chief advantage of the Black card was the two E/PE upgrade vouchers.

Ah well - plus ça change.

Hi, has anyone been told they can, or have been able to, carry over their same credit limit to the new card? Thanks in advance!

I haven’t had my letter yet but the new cards will be shredded. My own bank would give a better cash back rate.

I have my new Virgin Money credit card but was disappointed with the credit limit which is significantly lower than my current MBNA AmEx limit. Yeap being retired doesn’t help! Glad I maxed out on the AmEx card with bookings for our holiday to Florida in a couple of weeks.

I’m hoping that once I start using the new VirginMoney card and then pay off the statement each month as usual, then they will up my credit limit. If not, the BA AmEx card will be dusted off and used instead

So...applied for my Virgin Money card last night and have been declined!!? I have an excellent credit score and been with MBNA for years and always pay my balance every month. Clearly don't want my business! No sense in it and now I am black marked for being refused a credit card!! I have appealed but do I run the risk of being further black marked if they don't let me have one?And...it takes 30 days to get answer back from them! Ridiculous! Thanks for nothing Virgin.

There’ve been lots of reports of people being declined. Clearly Virgin Money have different criteria for deciding who to accept.

Did you not try the Card Checker before applying? That’s supposed to tell you if you’ll be accepted without affecting your credit score.

So...applied for my Virgin Money card last night and have been declined!!? I have an excellent credit score and been with MBNA for years and always pay my balance every month. Clearly don't want my business! No sense in it and now I am black marked for being refused a credit card!! I have appealed but do I run the risk of being further black marked if they don't let me have one?And...it takes 30 days to get answer back from them! Ridiculous! Thanks for nothing Virgin.

I had exactly the same issue with my application...rejected.

Then a note from Rob at Head for Points helped.

Part of his email reply to me was:

"So ..... the joint position from Virgin Money and Virgin Atlantic is that anyone who has been rejected should VM on 0800 876 6656 to discuss your application. I was told that if you say that you had the MBNA cards this should have some influence. Running through your income with them should also get you over the line if you are solvent!"

This worked for me.

I called VM to explain things and was promised a call back
A few days later, VM called me back as promised. It seems that they are rejecting quite a few MBNA customers for no particular reason...(Their systems?)

Rep said that they were not in the business of declining applications and want to get as many signed up as possible.

A couple of details were confirmed to the VM rep on the phone and he was happy to accept my application and approve the card.

Maybe worth a try?

Got my letter. I’ll let them send me a Horizon card, purely because it doesn’t impose extra charges when using abroad. Even so, will see how that goes, as I already have a Halifax Clarity card, which doesn’t charges for overseas purchases either.

I applied for the new VM card this morning, and the limit was almost x2 what my mbna cards were?
They said they would email about log in details etc, but still waiting to receive.
Hoping to check out a Virgin Money lounge in London in a few weeks time. NI has been forgotten about as usual, and has no lounges.

[mitchja]

They said they would email about log in details etc, but still waiting to receive.

You get that email in a few days time just before they dispatch the card to you. You also need the new card in front of you to set up your VM online account.

Hoping to check out a Virgin Money lounge in London in a few weeks time. NI has been forgotten about as usual, and has no lounges.

They’re ok as long as you’re not expecting a Clubhouse! Refreshments are pretty much limited to tea/coffee, cordial, fruit and biscuits.

Essentially they’re a decent place to take the weight off your feet or kill a bit of time but definitely not worth a special trip to use them (although one of the London ones does have some genuine UC seats!).

The locations are quite random - I think basically they’re where Virgin Money (and Northern Rock before it) had some unused office space and someone thought “wouldn’t it be cool if ....”.

They can get very busy - the Edinburgh one frequently turns people away - and that’s unlikely to improve (although as I read somewhere recently, maybe Headforpoints, the new VS credit card customers will probably bring the average age down significantly!).

Thanks for the info @gumshoe and @mitchja !

Will be holding on to the Horizon card - no charges for overseas transactions is main driver for that.