Investments questions and answers

You can transfer your cash or stocks and shares ISAs into your Virgin Money Stocks and Shares ISA. Just select Transfer when you apply, or from your dashboard within Online Service once your new ISA is open.

You can't transfer Help to Buy, Innovative Finance, Lifetime ISAs, Junior ISAs or a current tax year ISA that contains life insurance.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

If you want to make a transfer and don't use Online Service just give us a call and we'll help.

You can transfer ISAs from previous tax years to Virgin Money without affecting this year's ISA allowance. If you want to transfer an ISA that you've contributed to in the current tax year, it counts towards your annual allowance.

That depends on the type of investments and who your provider is. Transfers can take anything from a few weeks to a month or so, but we’ll make it as quick and easy as we can. Here’s how it works:

You give us the details of your account(s) you want to transfer – including your current provider, your plan or policy reference and the amount you want to transfer. We’ll contact your existing provider and usually get everything sorted online.

Some providers won’t accept a digital signature so we might get in touch again to ask you to sign and return a transfer form by post. It’s also possible there could be other queries that may mean we’ll need to contact you or the provider before we can finalise things. If your current provider still does everything by post that will slow the process down.

You’ll be able to track the progress of your transfer in Online Service and we’ll let you know when everything’s complete.

Remember that if you’re transferring other investments they will need to be sold and the cash value transferred to us. This means you may be ‘out of the market’ for a short time while the transfer is happening.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

You can call us to start your transfer. We’ll need you to return a signed transfer form before we can contact your existing provider.

You can transfer the value of existing investment accounts or general investment accounts into your Virgin Money Investment Account – when you apply or later on. Just remember, your current provider will need to sell your investments and transfer the value of them to us as cash. So you may be out of the market for a short time while the transfer is happening.

You can transfer as many ISAs as you like. Just give us the details when you apply, or transfer them one at a time once you've opened your account.

Remember, you can't transfer a Help to Buy ISA, Innovative Finance ISA or Junior ISA.

It’s straightforward - give your new provider the transfer details and they’ll deal directly with us.

We’ll transfer your investments in cash so your current investments will be sold. You’ll be out of the market until your transfer completes. This means you won’t lose out if markets fall but, likewise you won’t benefit if markets rise.

Just so you know, transferring between providers can take several weeks.

We protect you with a security check each time you sign in.

You can use the app to quickly and easily verify it's you signing in, or we can send a security code to your phone.

Remember, keeping your account safe is really important. Make sure you keep your security password for Online Service safe and never share it.

Our app is designed to help keep you safe when you're managing your account online. It also keeps you up-to-date with how your investments and pension are doing. Within our app you can check your balance, make a one-off payment, get in touch via secure messages, view and upload documents, and more.

Our app is the handy way to keep in control of your account, wherever you are.

If you don’t have a smartphone you can still sign in to Online Service to manage your account. You’ll just need to give us your phone number so we can send you a security code for verification each time you sign in.

Yes, you'll need to download the Virgin Money Investments app too. It's separate from our mobile banking and credit card apps.

It’s quick and simple but, for security reasons, you can only link one device to your account. So, we'll first need to remove your old device. Sign in to Online Service and on the next page, Let us know it's you find the Trouble signing in? section which includes Recently Changed your device? Follow the on-screen instructions for removing your old device first, then you can download our app and register your new mobile device.

No. For security reasons, you can only link one mobile device to your account.

Of course. Just go to Trouble signing in in Online Service, select I've recently changed my device then follow the on-screen instructions.

If you are using our Virgin Money Investments app, go to our Online Service and enter your username and password then select I've recently changed my device which is shown under the Trouble signing in section. Then follow the on-screen instructions. Once your old device has been removed you can download our App and register your new mobile device.

If your new device uses your old number, you'll be able to sign in as normal.

If you have a new number, or you don't have access to a new device, give us a call – we’ll get you up and running quickly.

Give us a call on 0345 528 88 88. We’ll get you up and running again.

For your security, we'll lock your account for 30 minutes if there have been too many failed attempts to sign in. During that 30-minute lock, you can still retrieve your username or reset your password.

If you're still unable to sign in after the 30-minute lock, please call us on 03455 28 88 88 to unlock your account.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

We moved your account to our new Online Service on 8 January 2024. The first time you sign in to the new Online Service you'll need to set up new sign in and security details. If your account is locked or you need any help just give us a call on 03455 28 88 88 or start a webchat.

Call us as soon as you can on 0345 528 88 88.

If you opened your account after 1 January 2023

As part of the account opening process we will set up your access to Online Service. This is where you manage your account, review performance and more.

To keep things extra secure, each time you sign in to Online Service we'll ask you to verify using the app, or by sending a passcode to your phone.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

We updated your account on 8 January 2024. Just follow the simple steps to set up sign in details for your new Online service.

If your account is locked or you need any help just give us a call on 03455 28 88 88 or start a webchat.

You can access all your important documents from your Documents in our Online Service.

You can also view those documents in our Virgin Money Investments app.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

We'll also send you copies of important documents by post, unless you ask us to go paperless.

Just so you know, we only show documents produced since 8 January 2024 in your Documents.

Access your dashboard in Online Service and select Transfer an ISA to us then follow the simple on-screen instructions. Please note that you can’t transfer a Help to Buy, Innovative Finance or Lifetime ISA into your Virgin Money Stocks and Shares ISA.

You will need to tell us which funds you want to invest in and give us some details about the ISA you’re transferring. We'll need your current provider’s details, your reference number and the amount you’d like to transfer.

If you want to transfer more than one ISA, just stay in Online Service and repeat the process again from the top.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

If you want to make a transfer and don't use Online Service just give us a call and we'll help.

Access your dashboard in Online Service and select Transfer an Investment Account to us, then follow the on-screen instructions. It’s simple and straightforward.

You’ll be asked to sign your form with a digital signature. In some cases, your current provider won’t accept a digital signature to allow the transfer to continue. If that happens, we’ll get back in touch with you to sign and return a transfer form by post.

You will need to tell us which funds you want to invest in and give us some basic details about the account you’re transferring. The basic details we'll ask for include your current provider’s details, your current plan / policy reference and the amount you’d like to transfer.

If you want to transfer more than one Investment Account, just start the process again from the top.

Please note that the investment account with your current provider may have another name, such as "General Investment Account" or "Trading Account".

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

If you want to make a transfer and don't use Online Service just give us a call and we'll help.

When you request to close your account, you're withdrawing from all the funds you're invested in. That process can take up to five working days. During this time, you might still see some money in your account but because your account is closing no new transactions will be possible.

Your dashboard will show that we’re closing the account for you. The account status will be closed once this is finished.

You need to notify us immediately if you move abroad. Laws outside of the UK may affect your ability to continue to make payments or benefit fully from the features of your Virgin Money Investment and Pension products . We’ll give you details once you’ve told us.

Unfortunately not, unless it's a BFPO address. Please get in touch, either by phone or using the secure messaging feature in Online Service.

You can keep them separate or we can merge these together for you. If you want to merge them, just give us a call.

You can choose any day from 1st–28th of each month for your Direct Debit payments. Just remember, it takes eight working days to set up and collect the first one.

We can collect payments on any date between the 1st and 28th of each month. If your preferred date falls on a non-working day, we’ll collect it on the next working day.

It takes eight working days to set up a new Direct Debit, and three working days to change an existing one. If we miss your chosen date in the first month, don't worry - your first payment will go out the following month.

Payments into your Virgin Money Investments and Pension accounts will show as "Virgin Money Inves" on your bank statements.

Go to your homepage in Online Service and select View your account and then Manage monthly payments. From here, you can cancel your monthly payment by following the on-screen instructions.

Please note that if you cancel your Direct Debit within three working days of the collection date, the cancellation will happen after your next payment's collected.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

You can also cancel your monthly payments by calling or writing to us.

Withdrawals from your Virgin Money ISA and Investment accounts will show as "Virgin Money Inves" on your bank statements.

We need ten working days to set up your monthly withdrawal. If it's too late for your chosen date, we'll make the first withdrawal the following month

You can always request a one-off withdrawal online, if you need your money sooner.

When withdrawing money from one of your funds, you can request a partial amount or the full balance.

If you request a partial withdrawal, the maximum amount is 90% of your balance. It's a safety measure because, in rare cases of extreme volatility, the value of your investment may drop to less than the amount you want to withdraw, before the payment's processed. If that happened, you'd be trying to withdraw more money than you actually had.

You pay two charges to hold an account with us: an Account Charge and an Annual Management Charge (or AMC for short). The first charge is for managing your account. We calculate the charge daily based on your account value, and collect it monthly by selling units proportionately across your investments.

The second charge is for managing your funds. It's a percentage based on the value of your funds and is deducted by the fund manager each day from the value of the fund.

You can see our latest charges here Funds and Charges.

We won't charge you any fees for moving to another provider

An ISA’s a good way to save for your medium and long-term goals because it's free from income and capital gains tax, so you won't pay tax on any dividends from shares and you won’t pay capital gains tax on any profits made from the investments within your ISA.

You can keep up-to-date by visiting our Investments fund price page.

We update the value of your funds overnight after each working day (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays). You can view your balance within our app and in Online Service. To help, we confirm the date your balance was last updated next to its current value.

You can also check your balance by calling our automated service on 03455 28 52 85.

If you opened your account before 1 January 2023

You can also check your balance by calling us on 03455 28 88 88.

Visit our Fund Value Assessment report page.

It's the level of risk an investor is prepared to accept when investing. It differs from person to person, depending on their goals and when the money's needed. Those who need the money in the next few years will be less likely to accept a possible loss and so have a lower risk appetite. Those looking to grow their wealth over a longer time horizon (say 10 years) tend to have a higher investment risk appetite – because they're prepared to weather short-term dips for the possibility for better longer term returns.

Possibly. There’s always a risk with investing. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.

That’s why investments are a medium to long-term commitment and why you should be prepared to invest your money for at least five years – it's generally the best way of smoothing out the short term ups and downs you can get with the stock market.

Yes. We believe investing responsibly will result in less risk and better opportunities to grow your money. It is also our way of making sure our investment decisions can change to reflect the needs of people and the planet over the long-term.

Want to know more?

Read more about how we invest responsibly

Virgin Red is Virgin’s free-to-join rewards club. Shop your favourite brands and earn Virgin Points to spend on good stuff from the Virgin family and beyond. From food to flights, gigs to gifts, days out to nights in – there’s something for everyone. If that sounds like a bit of you, sign up to Virgin Red Link opens in a new window and start earning today.

You could earn 1,000 to 50,000 Virgin Points if you topped up your Stocks & Shares ISA with at least £2,000 between 15 January 2024 and 30 April 2024 and keep it there until 31 October 2024.

If you qualify, we’ll send you your Virgin Points promo code in November 2024.

Terms and conditions

Between 3 August and 30 November 2023, customers who invested at least £1,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA or Investment Account were automatically entered into our monthly prize draw to win one million Virgin Points.

We contacted all the lucky winners by the end of December 2023.

Here’s more information about our previous offers.

No. Once you’ve redeemed your promo code, your Virgin Points appear in your account and you’re good to go. Because they don’t expire, you’ve got plenty of time to decide how to spend them. And that’s a good thing because there’s loads of exciting possibilities to choose from, ranging from everyday treats to extraordinary experiences and everything in between. Log in to the Virgin Red app or check out the Virgin Red website to explore your options.

You can see the latest terms for your account in your Documents, in Online Service. You can also view our Investment Account and Stocks and Shares ISA Account Terms

We don't provide financial advice, but you could try the following:

• Money Helper
• Unbiased

You're not able to hold cash long term in our investment or pension accounts.

You may occasionally hold cash on a temporary basis - for example, during a transaction. We don't earn interest or pay you interest on that cash.

In the unlikely event we can’t meet our financial obligations, you may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS up to a maximum value of £85,000.

Find out more

A fund is a collection of different investors’ money that's all invested in a variety of different assets, which are detailed on the fund’s factsheet.

A fund provides more diversification than investing in shares of a single company. It's a way of spreading the risk and giving your money more chances to grow.

Check out our Investment funds to see which one's right for you.

An approach is another name we use for our ready made funds. It makes them easier to understand and helps you choose which one's right for you.

Check out all our Investment funds.

It’s like an IOU, used by companies and governments to raise money. The buyer lends money to the seller in return for regular interest with the money returned at the end of the term of the bond (maturity date). The value of a bond can rise and fall based on the attractiveness of the income and the creditworthiness of the lender.

It’s a bit of a company. If a company does well, shareholders (share owners) get a proportion of the profit, paid as a dividend. The value of shares changes according to the company’s performance and other market factors such as how the wider economy is performing.

It’s a type of bond. Instead of lending money to a company, it’s lent to the UK Government.

It’s a pool of money gathered by a company from investors. It’s used to buy, manage or invest in property and land to generate income. Whilst the value rises and falls with the stock market, over the medium to long-term it provides the benefits of owning real estate without needing millions to invest.

For new units that you bought in the tax year, part of the price you paid was for income already earned by the fund up to the date you bought the units. This isn’t income you earned, but part of the cost you paid for your initial investment.

To make sure you are not taxed twice on this value, equalisation may be paid by the fund manager. It isn’t taxed as income but is used to adjust the cost you use for working out capital gains.

Authorised Unit Trust Dividends are credits from funds. Where credited to a Virgin Money Investment Account you can see these on the Tax Certificate we'll issue you with every year. They're payable for a number of the Virgin Money funds you might hold. You can use those amounts to complete your HMRC self assessment.

Every six months, we'll work out the total amount of income received by each fund. If you hold accumulation units, that income is paid back into the fund and reflected in the unit price. If you hold income units then it is either paid out to you, or reinvested to buy more units - depending on which option you've selected.

You'll find the dates and the details for each fund in this Investment Income leaflet.

We'll process income payments within 10 working days of the income being received by the Fund. Quicker if we can. If you choose to have the income paid out you'll receive it a few days after we’ve processed it. For the fastest way to get it - ask us to pay it directly to your bank account.

Net is an amount after tax has been deducted or before any tax has been added, and Gross is an amount before any tax is deducted. All investment income linked to your Virgin Money Investments will be paid on a gross basis.

A fund of funds is an investment fund that invests in other funds, rather than directly in stocks, shares, bonds, etc. It’s a good way to lower the risk through diversification, and give your money more ways to grow.

Each fund in the product you hold with us is divided into units. When you pay money in, we buy units for you. When you take money out, or when paying account charges, we sell units for you. These are known as trades. We ask the fund manager to place trades for you. The fund manager sets the fund price on each business day. The price of units will change over time, because it depends on the value of all the assets in the fund.

Dividend distributions are income from our funds which are mainly invested in stocks and shares, either paid to you or reinvested into your fund. You will be able to see your dividend received value in your Tax Certificate, if you hold an Investment Account with us.

Sorry to hear that. We will try to help if we can, just give us a call or send us a secure message. 

To help make our on-screen text easier to read you can change its colour, font and size. Just follow these links:

For Microsoft Edge

For Mozilla Firefox

For Google Chrome

If the browser you're using isn't listed above, please check its Help section to find out how to make those changes. Some browsers will let you use your own text style instead of ours, together with other helpful accessibility options.

Braille, large font and audio

We can provide the following options for all info about our products:

• Large print
• Braille (Universal English Braille, contracted or uncontracted)
• Audio CD

We're happy to explain any of our printed letters or anything within our Online Service, if you need us to. For more info, or to request a different format, just get in touch.

Using our site with the help of screen readers

There are apps and software you can download that will read out the content of our website, such as:

• JAWS
• NVDA
• Voiceover

Help with reading a PDF

Sometimes, you'll find info on our website in a PDF format. You'll need Adobe Reader® on your computer to read that.

If you don't have that software, you can download it for free from Adobe's website. To read PDFs with a screen reader you can link to the Access Adobe website which offers useful tools and resources.

You can call us with Text Relay

The Relay UK Service can help if you can't hear a voice on a phone call, if you need time to hear everything the other person is saying, or if the person you're speaking with has difficulty understanding what you're saying.

To find out more about Text Relay, visit the Relay UK Website.

Using your voice instead of a keyboard and mouse

Your computer or device can be set up to use spoken words to control your browser and other software.

Have a look in your settings for voice recognition, speech recognition or dictation options. For more advanced voice recognition software, you might want to try Dragon Naturally Speaking.

You can use our online forgotten Username and forgotten Password functions to retrieve your Username and reset your Password should you forget them. Alternatively, give us a call. We understand that resetting your password is time consuming, however, it helps keep your account secure.

Let us know what you need, so we can offer you the right support.

We can also share details of appropriate organisations who may also be able to help, please get in touch.

If you need help managing your Virgin Money Investment Accounts, you might want to consider appointing someone to do that via a Power of Attorney. Just get in touch if you want to do this.

Yes, if a Power of Attorney has been put in place to manage your affairs, they'll need to contact us. We'll explain to them what paperwork we need before they're allowed to manage your Virgin Money Investment and Pensions Accounts.

We always try to provide the highest standard of service, but sometimes things go wrong. When they do, we work hard to put them right as quickly as possible.

If you’re unhappy with something, please get in contact with us by phone, secure message (via our Online Service) or in writing.

If you know the sign in details you used before 8 January 2024 then head to the sign in page. Input your previous sign in ID in Username and your PIN in password.

You'll need to confirm a couple of new details, so that we know it is you. It'll take just a couple of minutes. If your account is locked or you need any help just give us a call on 03455 28 88 88 or start a webchat from the sign in page.

If you've forgotten your sign in details, or to register for online service if you haven't used it before follow the online instructions Link opens in a new window and we'll post you a PIN to get set up. This takes a couple of days - we do it this way to keep you safe.

If your previous sign in details aren't recognised - your details are case sensitive, so please check the case you used when you originally set them up. If you're still having problems please request a PIN Link opens in a new window to register - you'll need your account number starting VIR number from an old statement.

If you don’t know your previous sign in details - please request a PIN Link opens in a new window to register - you'll need your account number starting VIR from an old statement.

If you requested a registration PIN but it hasn’t arrived - We'll send your registration PIN as soon as we can, to the address we hold on your account. If you've changed address please call us on 03455 28 88 88 to update your details. Your PIN may take up to 5 working days to arrive. If it hasn't arrived after this time you can request a replacement PIN Link opens in a new window.

If the PIN you received in the post doesn’t work - Your PIN will expire 14 days after issue. If you haven't used it within this time please request a replacement PIN Link opens in a new window.

If you don’t know your VIR account number - You'll find your VIR account number on any letters or statements that we sent to you before the end of 2023.

Yes. With our new service we’ll send information securely to your account and put it in the post too. To turn off paper just sign into Online Service and choose Go paperless from your homepage or Profile.

No. For information and help please call us on 03455 28 88 88 or write to us at Virgin Money Investments and Pensions, PO Box 24204, Edinburgh EH3 1JP.

If you opened your account before January 2023, you can still make payments and withdrawals by cheque if you choose.

To make a cheque withdrawal, just give us a call. Bear in mind that:

• Cheques we send to you will expire after three months.
• If you don't cash a cheque and is expires, the value of the cheque will be added back to your account and show as a cash balance.

You may find it easier and more secure to link a bank account. You can do this in Online Service - just give us a call if you need help.