Demand for Virgin Money credit card

"We estimate that our customers have already saved in excess of R13 million by not being fleeced with annual credit card, petrol card or loyalty fees."

Maxwell says the extraordinary response to the launch is proof, if any was needed, that South Africans are looking for a better deal from their financial institutions.

"South African credit cardholders are fed up with being ripped-off to the tune of R1.5 billion a year by their credit card providers, and have been very quick to pick up on the great value offered by the Virgin Money Credit Card," he says. "Simply put, we're offering a financial product that is superior to anything else in the South African market."

In addition, the company has approved over 20 000 Car Cards.

The Virgin Money Credit Card is the first in South Africa to combine no annual fees, no loyalty fees, and an interest rate of 0% for the first three months for any purchases, with a competitive variable interest rate thereafter of 15.75%. The card is also the first to offer a flat 5% interest rate on any positive balance - no matter how big or small.

Daredevil launch

Virgin Money South Africa was launched on 26 June 2006, by the Virgin Group chairman, Sir Richard Branson, in his typical daredevil manner by 'foofie' sliding 450 metres off the top of the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg. Within 48 hours of the launch, the Virgin Money website, www.virginmoney.co.za, had registered over 80 000 hits.

"Our contact centre's 130 agents dealt with, on average, 5 000 calls every day for the first two weeks," comments Maxwell.

This massive customer response exceeded all expectations and brought with it certain challenges in delivering the cards to customers.

"Our aim was to deliver cards within two to three working days - this hasn't happened and we apologise to some of our customers who have had to wait longer for their cards," says Maxwell.

"We have employed additional couriers to boost our delivery capacity to cope with customer demand for the card. We now have over 500 couriers working flat out delivering over 2 500 cards a day. Our average delivery time now is 10 working days and our intent is to get this down to our promised delivery time as soon as possible."