CRAIGFIN

I am thinking of going for one of these Virgin One accounts when I get my house. I know loads of people that already have one and they absolutely rave about them. I have not heard one bad thing about them, has anybody on here got one? If so, are there any downsides to the account as I haven't heard any ?

Cheers,

Craig.

MarkO

There's loads of flexible mortages like this around - I've had one for years, run by Bank Of Scotland (who are the backbone behind Virgin's One account). They're very good, providing you have the self-discipline to use them correctly. The biggest problem is that effectively they give you the freedom to never pay your mortgage off at all.

I actually applied for a Virgin One account, but was turned down on the basis that they "didn't like my spending patterns".

CRAIGFIN

MarkO,

Yeah, the general opinion is that you need to be very disciplined to have one of these accounts as you rightly say, you could get in trouble with forgeting about your mortgage. Anyone else ?

Thanks for the reply,

Craig.

dnb

I have a Virgin One account. I find the downside is that you suddenly become mean with your money, as the statements they send look like you have a HUGE overdraft! Suddenly, you feel that you can't afford anything!

(So I went out and bought a Scoob... Now I really have no money )

I have saved quite a lot this year just by the way the account works - you effectively earn interest at mortgage rates (as long as you wanted to use it to pay the mortgage faster)

There are, as MarkO said, plenty of flexi mortgages now, so shop around.

ricardo

Got a Virgin One account, and its works really well. You earn money, and you spend it. Any money you don't spend comes off the mortgage, which gets smaller, so the interest reduces. Of course you do have to spend less than you earn over the long term.

Very handy when you get a variable yearly bonus like me, since that is simply a big chunk off the mortgage.

Also means that you can buy big items simply by writing a cheque (e.g. a conservatory, or a car...) and it goes back ON the mortgage (so is at mortgage rate rather than personal loan rate or finance company rate).

Once I went to a cash machine to get a few quid out and it displayed the balance on the screen:

xxx000 overdrawn

The nosey person behind nearly choked