Anyone had any luck when missing out on credit card sign up bonus?

[Ozliz]

I have the virgin money frequent flyer card which I signed up for intending to get the 100,000 points bonus. This requires $1500 spend per month for the first 4 months to get 25,000 points each month.

Unfortunately this card also has international transaction fees so my choice to sign up at the same period as multiple overseas trips was probably not the best one. I’ve obviously been using other cards overseas and therefore struggling a bit to line up the right charges while here in Australia.

I’ve just discovered that I didn’t receive the expected bonus points this month (second month) because I assume one of my transactions was not ‘eligible’. I’ll be looking at the T’s & C’s tonight but would like to know if anyone has had any luck appealing anything.

I was caught out the first month (although luckily qualified for the bonus by chance) as the statement period was earlier than I expected. I had calculated my spend around international travel based on the first month starting the date I received and activated the card and not the date that they approved the application. This has made it hard for me to get my transactions to line up but I thought I was doing OK.

I’m planning to ask if they’ll do something to give me a 5th month to get that final 25,000 bonus on account of this issue (when really it’s likely about an ineligible purchase but hey jet lag makes it hard) but I would love to hear if anyone has had any success or otherwise so I may know what the best case to put forward might be.

Cheers.

 

[Oubline]

Lodge a formal complaint with Virgin Money and I think they will almost definitely grant you the points.

If not, then I think they will if you take the next step afterwards and complain to AFCA. In my opinion there’s too much grey area with the whole eligible spend definition, I don’t think they would or should be able to hide behind that and trip you up if you’ve tried in good faith to comply with the promotion requirements.

I haven’t had a specific issue with Virgin Money but have with other banks and they have been quick to come to the party and avoid a dispute that would be costly to them (e.g. AFCA).

 

[Ozliz]

So follow up on this in case anyone is interested in the future. Virgin Money have been very black and white and said no. Even more frustrating is that all matters relating to credit cards require a phone call. There is no in-app/NetBank messaging available for credit card matters. I’ve wasted way too much time recently (ie my lunch breaks) on the hold trying to get things like international travel recorded and managing this latest special request (for which a decision was made but I wasn’t informed until I called back myself).

I particularly don’t recommend Virgin Money cards if you’re a regular international traveler as it is such a waste of time having to call each trip. They also won’t take a phone number contact specific to individual trips (relevant for roaming/local sim purposes) or an email address the way my other banks will. To get a travel phone number recorded on my last trip I had to have it recorded as a number on my whole account and then get that number removed again when I returned.

Ok rant over. I’m cancelling the card once all the benefits have been used up and finding something better from the perspective of having a more user friendly system (seriously, who remembers the details of phone calls when you’re shifting time zones a lot - I need my written records!).

 

[yojohnny]

I have the virgin money frequent flyer card which I signed up for intending to get the 100,000 points bonus. This requires $1500 spend per month for the first 4 months to get 25,000 points each month.

Unfortunately this card also has international transaction fees so my choice to sign up at the same period as multiple overseas trips was probably not the best one. I’ve obviously been using other cards overseas and therefore struggling a bit to line up the right charges while here in Australia.

I’ve just discovered that I didn’t receive the expected bonus points this month (second month) because I assume one of my transactions was not ‘eligible’. I’ll be looking at the T’s & C’s tonight but would like to know if anyone has had any luck appealing anything.

I was caught out the first month (although luckily qualified for the bonus by chance) as the statement period was earlier than I expected. I had calculated my spend around international travel based on the first month starting the date I received and activated the card and not the date that they approved the application. This has made it hard for me to get my transactions to line up but I thought I was doing OK.

I’m planning to ask if they’ll do something to give me a 5th month to get that final 25,000 bonus on account of this issue (when really it’s likely about an ineligible purchase but hey jet lag makes it hard) but I would love to hear if anyone has had any success or otherwise so I may know what the best case to put forward might be.

Cheers.

For the months you did get the points, how quickly did they come through?

 

[asterix]

For the months you did get the points, how quickly did they come through?

My first two months of points have come through both time on the afternoon of the day my statement was emailed to me.

 

[yojohnny]

My first two months of points have come through both time on the afternoon of the day my statement was emailed to me.

Thanks. When you say they came through, do you mean they hit you Velocity account?

Presumably the Velocity number was provided during sign-up; I can't quite remember now.

 

[asterix]

Thanks. When you say they came through, do you mean they hit you Velocity account?

Presumably the Velocity number was provided during sign-up; I can't quite remember now.

Correct, they hit my Velocity account on the afternoon that I received my statement. Yes, I provided my Velocity number on signup.

 

[Ozliz]

For the months you did get the points, how quickly did they come through?

Within a day or two. The quick points transfer is about the only useful thing with this card.

 

[yojohnny]

Within a day or two. The quick points transfer is about the only useful thing with this card.

Cheers.

 

[yojohnny]

Within a day or two. The quick points transfer is about the only useful thing with this card.

So they came BEFORE the statement then?