I had a business account with Yorkshire Bank and it got taken over by Virgin money. I have to go into the branch and spend 15 minutes getting a statement. They do offer me a coffee, though I decline lest I use the coffee for unintended purposes. Making non regular bank transfers takes a similar amount of time and bother.

I currently can’t do online banking, I’ve registered for it but they haven’t got back to me. You can’t just register online, you have to ‘apply’ in bank and they get back to you when they can be arsed, which they haven’t been as yet.

Business telephone banking no longer works. I haven’t managed to speak to anyone there for over 6 months, whichever of the half a dozen or so numbers the branch palms me off with.

When clients try and pay invoices their banks tell them they don’t recognise Virgin money so can’t guarantee secure payment. The payments go through ok but explaining this to a client makes them very nervous, I have to agree to take the hit if there’s any issues. It’s Kafkaesque.

Went into the branch on Market St in Manchester today. It looks more like a nightclub than a bank, everyone dressed in a red t-shirt, skinny jeans and Vans on their trotters. When I asked to speak to the manager a’yoot’ comes out dressed in the aforementioned attire. At first I mistook her for a pot collector, though she proceeded to demonstrate that she didn’t have the skills required to be a pot collector, becoming manager for Virgin Money must have been her fall- back position.

Popped next door to Lloyds Bank to apply to open an account there (not transferring, wouldn’t trust Virgin not to cock it up so going to close account and start afresh with an actual bank.)

I’ve hardly ever worn a suit and tie in my life but have never been so relieved to be talking to someone wearing one.

I’d have no objection to:

the branch on Market St in Manchester today. It looks more like a nightclub than a bank, everyone dressed in a red t-shirt, skinny jeans and Vans on their trotters. When I asked to speak to the manager a’yoot’ comes out dressed in the aforementioned attire.

but in 2021 the inability to do online banking means it basically is not functioning as a bank. I understand your pain.

I’m not aware of a single Virgin product that is close to what it should be.

Rule of thumb is to avoid anything associated with Mr Beardy’s brands coz they/he see you coming.

Slightly different from you but it’s the same brand …
I used to have my PAYG mobile with them until they wanted to switch to contract but I refused so requested the PAC code but they insisted I login to my account etc … which I don’t have. I bought my SIM nearly 20 years ago. As a result they could not give me my PAC code. Had to speak to someone on the phone for hours without getting my PAC code. Similar situation happened to my friend who has decided to write them letter to see how long will it take for them to give him the PAC code.

I have a private pension of theirs, which is fine because money goes into it and I never have to talk to anyone about it for, ooh, probably 20+ years. The website however hasn’t changed in all the time it has been available. It still launches a Java dialogue box when you log on!

Rule of thumb is to avoid anything associated with Mr Beardy’s brands coz they/he see you coming.

Iirc beardy isn’t involved with most of the businesses now, he just lends them the name, for a lot of millions a year.

Think I’ve a couple of K with them, but tbh i keep meaning to withdraw whatever is in there and either keep it in the house or maybe premium bonds or such. I have lost all confidence in the banking industry over these last few years.

Is this not a good few banks now?

We left RBS after a particularly frustrating time waiting an hour for a white t-shirts, iPad welding and dismissive staff member to tell my 14 year old that they shouldn’t be paid in cash (paper-round) and no they weren’t open at a weekend and no you can only use a machine to pay in if you have an adult account… Still, it did feel like a night club with such a queue of people waiting to close thier accounts on account of the dreadful new branch, reduced opening hours and no tellers, just machines.

We walked around the corner and joined a shorter queue for new accounts at HSBC – open on Saturday, actual people and youth accounts that work with machine or person.

Find that Nationwide have also stuck to some half decent service as the hook to customers.

People seem to hate HSBC for various reasons but they have always provided me with amazing service (when they made a slight error in booking a mortgage appointment with us they bent over backwards to sort it out they really did, going beyond what they needed to do), polite staff, fast response to any request I ask of them and plain simple language too. Their online banking can’t be faulted by me either.

I’m 20 years with First Direct and the wife even longer with HSBC and both of us have never had an issue with them. Keep meaning to change because we’re told we should change, but I kind of feel like rewarding good service. I was with Direct Line for many years too even though they were not always the cheapest but they peed me off last year so dumped them and now in the cycle of shopping around every year for car insurance. Its a PITA and seems so ridiculous. First year with a company, renewal quote nearly twice what I paid the previous year so jump ship to another company who was even cheaper than they were the previous year. No doubt next year they will be twice as expensive too. Just seems so counter productive. But having said that this is both the most expensive and prestige car I’ve ever owned and also probably the cheapest to insure so the powers of competition seem to be working.

I’m getting rid of my virgin credit card as it’s no longer possible to manage your account online, it’s now app only

If you choose your bank based on what the staff wear I think you’ll be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Pretty sure the bankers behind the last financial crisis weren’t wearing t-shirts.

I had a call at work today, market research / satisfaction survey about business banking. I’ll put it this way, I think they need to recalibrate their response options. No positive answers at all. (HSBC)

And another thing. A friend needed a refund on Virgin flights to USA which were cancelled due to the C word. They spread the cost over two credit cards. One paid back immediately the other took months. Guess who that card was with? You guessed it Virgin Money.

I’ve been with Lloyds almost all my working life! They’re handy, with a branch in the centre of town, although not open to customers at the moment, but their internet banking works fine, should I need it, and I can directly contact my account manager by phone if I need to, which I did when I bought my new car. I had enough for the deposit, and some excess in another account I was able to switch via the app, but I needed to arrange a loan for the balance first thing on the Monday morning the car was being sold the other side of the country an hour later, and it all went without a hitch, took about twenty minutes over the phone.
I have to say my account manager is an absolute star, incredibly helpful and pretty much a friend.
With service like that, changing banks is out of the question!

I’m getting rid of my virgin credit card as it’s no longer possible to manage your account online, it’s now app only

Same, I have absolutely no idea why they have chosen to go that way unless they are purposely trying to shed customers (liability?). It’s an absolute nightmare and despite assurances to the contrary you can’t email yourself statements. Only ever used it for deals but there are plenty more out there offering better service.

Don’t bank with virgin money

We did enjoy their free wine offer (hic) their banking service less so..

Trying to make a transfer to (luckily) a mate for a motorbike on a Saturday and had to go through their fraud dept to clear it, answered all the security questions to then be told fraud dept would respond when back in on Monday… wtf, then locked my account when I wouldn’t respond to unsolicited phone call from them.

I worked in the world of corporate banking / finance for many years. Yorkshire were a competitor and they used to be good. They went through a long chain of takeovers, rebrands and were in and out of the market every other year. They were laying staff on then rehiring, they went through several cycles of it.

Not surprised with what you say.

I’ve had my Yorkshire Bank account for nigh-on 50 years! There have been a couple of niggles, but not enough to make me switch. I’m not liking what I’m reading about Virgin …..

I’m all for switching regularly and looking for the best deals, but I’ve definitely found service is the key differentiator with banking. First Direct and Nationwide in particular have always been great, so I’ve stayed with them despite the odd .01% here or there! They’re both, responsive and helpful, and phone and online banking just work. It’s one thing to faff around with some bunch of amateurs who can’t send a gas bill without jeffing it up, but not my mortgage!

Dickyboy, that’s the kind of thing I’m worried about, my account getting frozen or something when another bank think their might be a fraud involved when transferring money. I’ve not been able to speak to anyone on the phone for six months, I tried phoning the complaint line only to be put through to the credit card section. I’m sure the music they play whilst stuck on hold is the same music they play at the gates of hell.

When I went in yesterday the ‘manager’ wrote down my three complaints: No online banking, no phone banking (or possible contact even) and other banks flagging up my account as fraudulent. Have I had an email? Have I had a phone call? Have I had a text message? Rhetorical questions of course.

They didn’t offer me a coffee today, probably because I marched straight to the machine to get a mini statement, looking at the floor all the time so as not to make eye contact. If a pair of trendy trainers came into my view I knew it would be a staff member coming to ask if they could help me and I could take evasive action.

@inkster – if you are thinking of changing banks, I wouldn’t recommend putting santander on your shortlist. I’m a month into trying to redeem my mortgage with them…