Virgin Money still offering 5,000 Virgin miles for opening an ISA

Virgin Money is offering 5,000 Flying Club miles to anyone who open a new FTSE Tracker ISA. See here for full details. 

I first wrote about this offer last year, thinking it was a short term special deal, but I received another email from Flying Club about it last week and it does seem to be continuing.

There are two ways to invest. You can either invest a lump sum of £1,000, or make a £75 monthly investment for at least six months. In either case, you must leave the account open for six months.

You hopefully don´t need me to remind you that this is an investment product and you could lose some of your capital – these miles are definitely not risk free.

The less risky option is £75 x 6 months = £450 invested. If you valued the miles at £50, you would still come out on top with a 10% fall in the market by the time you exit.

The £1,000 lump sum investment is clearly riskier – the value of the miles is wiped out with just a 5% fall in the market. As your entire £1,000 is invested on Day 1, you are also losing out on proportionately more bank interest as well.

You cannot open this ISA if you already have a ‘stocks and shares’ ISA for the current tax year. You can open one if you only have a ‘cash’ ISA for the current tax year.  The small print says that the offer is once per customer, so I assume you cannot get it again if you opened a similar ISA last year.

This is certainly not one for totally unsophisticated investors.  However, if you don´t need the money back in the short term then you do at least have the flexibility to sit it out until the market gets back to your original investment level!

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, one has a bonus of 15,000 points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and the most generous non-Amex for day to day spending Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points:

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)