Virgin Money Bank Points Not Happy That I’M Spending to Get Points?

FujiFruit on 10/12/2021 - 18:38
Last edited 10/12/2021 - 18:55

So I moved over to virgin money for the honey moon 1.5% interest rate for 3 months and ends in jan. They also have another go account that give 8 points per purchase . I been shopping a lot through after pay etc and yes my shopping ranges from $1.50-$300.

I get a email today from virgin :

“We have noticed some unusual activity on your Virgin Money Rewards account.
This includes multiple transactions for small denominations, potentially for the purpose of earning additional points.
In accordance with the Virgin Money Rewards Terms and Conditions, points are only allocated to a customer’s account if the transaction is considered by us to be a genuine transaction.
Whilst no immediate action has been taken, we will continue to closely monitor for further unusual activity.”

After receiving this email , I can’t wait to leave this bank in mid jan. What a way to lose a customer.

So I will just stop using them for normal purchases in the mean time.

What is your view? They can remove my points correct if I keep shopping the ways I shop?
Also their debit card to withdraw money from atm has never worked. I have requested twice to get a new debit card.
Their app is horrible as it spending and saving graph doesn’t align with the app.
On top of that beem it doesn’t work with virgin.
Anway time to move on

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Comments

  • bobbified on 10/12/2021 - 18:44
    +7

    After receiving this email , I can’t wait to leave this bank in mid jan.

    You've been caught trying to game the system… why do you sound surprised?

    • orangetrain on 10/12/2021 - 22:57
      +1

      Wow, if gaming is bad then a lot of ING users are gaming with 5 5c transactions!

      • Kyle-K on 11/12/2021 - 13:08
        +1

        5c God you're a big spenda most do 1c transactions to meet requirements over at ING.

  • spackbace on 10/12/2021 - 19:18
    -1

    https://www.virginmoney.com.au/content/dam/virginmoney/vma-d…

    When you will not earn points

    5.27. We may
    • suspend allocating Virgin Money Rewards Points,
    • cancel any Points already allocated
    • terminate your participation in the Program altogether, if we reasonably believe that allocating Virgin Money Rewards Points may breach any legal or regulatory requirements, or if Virgin Money Australia suspects potential fraud, money laundering or terrorism financing activities. We may also exercise these rights, where in our reasonable opinion, the use of your Eligible Products is deliberately designed for the sole or predominant purpose of earning Points rather than making genuine purchases (‘gaming’).

  • meowsers on 10/12/2021 - 19:20
    +3

    They designed the promo. I pay $3.50 for parking every day sometimes when working. I pay for a 3 bucks for a box of gum. Not gaming because I don't have that account.

    In either case you're unhappy and they are unhappy. Just keep using it and complain to AFCA if they cut you off for — actual legit transactions.

    Now if you are actually gaming it that's another matter, they need to be aware that there are outliers with every promo. Some people wont use it at all. Some will use it all the time.

  • tsunamisurfer on 10/12/2021 - 22:09

    Isn't it normal for an Ozbargainer to :
    - Buy a $1 coffee from 7/11
    - Buy a $1 Hash brown.
    - Buy a $5 beef and bacon small meal burger.

  • dizzle on 10/12/2021 - 22:36

    I'd assume now that it's flagged, they'll be looking for frequent repeat sales from the same store (for example making 10 purchases from target instead of putting it under 1 transaction). If you're doing $30 at target, coffee from the cafe, lottery tickets from the newsagents, rolls from the bakery, plus a few other stops and that's all from one shopping morning/afternoon, then that shouldn't be an issue.

    One part I did notice though:

    I been shopping a lot through after pay etc and yes my shopping ranges from $1.50-$300.

    I'm less familier with Afterpay, but if you've done 10 transactions this week, does it bunch those together as one repayment every two weeks? How about transactions over a couple of days, does it fall into one repayment or multiple? That could be the reason if there are multiple repayments going to one vendor (afterpay) instead of multiple retailers.

  • rektrading on 10/12/2021 - 23:44
    +2

    It sounds like Virgin is being tight. They're ngmi if they keep it up.

    CDC is the way to go.

    • orangetrain on 11/12/2021 - 13:49

      Company name checks out

  • Drakesy on 11/12/2021 - 01:09
    +2

    Yeah, ngl virgin money's fine print is seriously sh1t, between eligible transactions and everything else it's pretty bad.

  • LockstepConspiracy on 11/12/2021 - 11:35

    I've done small transactions.

    How many transactions per month are you doing?

    I think around 2-3 a week is reasonable, anything more would flag you. I'm only doing it to get the bonus interest rate.

    • LockstepConspiracy on 11/12/2021 - 12:01
      +1

      Also I have determined from their T&Cs that you can still earn bonus interest even if you are banned from the points program.

  • FujiFruit on 11/12/2021 - 14:17

    They even have this promotion for u to spend over $2.

    https://virginmoney.com.au/blog/my-money/win-5000-just-for-c…

  • TheGuru on 11/12/2021 - 14:30

    What kind of transactions are you doing?

    I have the same account - best to know so I don’t get caught either

  • FujiFruit on 18/12/2021 - 22:42

    I do once every two days of Afterpay and other normal shopping. I increased my payments to $15 for each after pay payment and a couple of Klarna this week and I just got the same email today from virgin about the points . It was a cut and paste. They said small denominations but it doesn’t make sense as for the last one week since their last email I have been doing $15 Afterpay payments three times this week not daily . So if they stop the points so I will just have to wait till mid jan and move to another bank.

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