Virgin credit card

[Dave A]

I see Richard Branson is launching a Virgin credit card in South Africa.

No annual card fee, no loyalty program fee and good interest rates when compared to current local offerings.

Will the locals respond?

[I Robot]

And doing it in association with ABSA. Maybe local banks can be beaten back a bit on their fee policies.

[duncan drennan]

Overall it looks like a relatively good deal, and at least (finally) they are saying that budget on your credit card doesn't make sense! Yay! They're tooning you straight (in the words of a chicken owned airline). It has always bugged me how the banks push their budget facility.

[Alan]

Will the locals respond?

Damn sure they will.

[I Robot]

Overall it looks like a relatively good deal, and at least (finally) they are saying that budget on your credit card doesn't make sense! Yay! They're tooning you straight (in the words of a chicken owned airline). It has always bugged me how the banks push their budget facility.

The catch with budget facilities seemed to be that interest started from day 1. Doing the deal straight and then paying off later may seem to give you "up to 55 days free credit", but if you don't settle by due date the interest kicks in.

And with most cards interest is calculated from the original date of the transaction!! Interest free credit gone.

Any payments are allocated against interest, then oldest transactions first. So the only way to get the "free credit" is to settle the balance by due date. This makes the budget system viable if you are not settling the full balance each month. With careful management you can still get some of your transactions through with the free credit.