Octopus Money Unit Trust Managers Limited · DRN-5291773

The complaint Mr S complains about the process to open a stocks & shares ISA with Octopus Money Unit Trust Managers Limited (‘Virgin’). What happened In early 2024, Virgin ran a promotion offering Virgin Points for customers who invested £2,000 or more in a new or existing stocks & shares ISA. Mr S saw this promotion, and in early April 2024, he completed an online application to set up a Virgin account. Virgin wrote to Mr S to confirm the account had been opened and asking him to confirm that funds would be transferred into this account from an ISA he held with another provider. Mr S agreed to this. However, the account Mr S had opened was an investment account and not a stocks & shares ISA as he’d intended. As such, he didn’t receive the Virgin Points set out in the promotion he’d seen, and his funds came out of their tax free ISA wrapper. Mr S complained about this to Virgin, saying he had never wanted an investment account and that when he’d called them later on to check when the points would be added, the person he spoke to didn’t correct him. Virgin didn’t uphold his complaint, so Mr S brought it to our service where it was considered by an investigator. They didn’t think the complaint should be upheld, but Mr S disagreed, so the case has been passed to me. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. I’ve considered the promotion Virgin was running, which said the following: You could earn 1,000 to 50,000 Virgin Points when you invest £2,000 or more in a new or existing Stock & Shares ISA by 30 April 2024 and keep it there till 31 October 2024 to qualify. Terms apply. While there were other qualifying terms and conditions which applied, I’ll focus solely on the fact that the promotion was only valid for customers with a new or existing stocks & shares ISA, as that is what is relevant in Mr S’ case. I’m satisfied that the promotion itself clearly stated that it only applied to stocks & shares ISAs and I’ve been provided with nothing to suggest that the Virgin website contained any information to the contrary. Mr S completed a self-directed application online to open the account, meaning the process was completed without advice from Virgin and it was up to him to check the account he was opening was the one he wanted. He feels the application process was unclear and misleading. As such, I have looked into where the promotion page led a user – it directed

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them to open an ISA account. There are other pages which offered other products, as is to be expected, but these are not linked directly from the promotion page that Mr S was interested in. In this kind of self-directed application, it is ultimately up to Mr S to apply for the account he wants. If the promotion had been misleading about what accounts it applied to, or if the online process had misdirected users to open accounts which were not eligible for the promotion, then my findings might differ. But this is not the case here. When Virgin wrote to Mr S in early April, confirming the account had been opened, all the documentation stated that the account he’d opened was an investment account. Additionally, the letter asked Mr S to read and check the documents to ensure they were accurate, and declare that he’d read the terms and had received no advice from Virgin. Mr S signed this declaration. Mr S spoke to Virgin on the phone in November 2024 to ask when he should expect to see the points appear on his account. The agent answered Mr S’ question, making the assumption that Mr S had an ISA without checking this. I agree that the agent should have done better here. But given this call came 7 months after the promotion ended, I don’t think it is reasonable to attribute the opening of the wrong account and loss of the Virgin Points to the confusion the call might have caused. In conclusion, while I understand Mr S’ disappointment and frustration that the wrong account was opened, I cannot say that Virgin are at fault for this and therefore I cannot uphold this complaint. My final decision I do not uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr S to accept or reject my decision before 23 April 2026. Artemis Pantelides Ombudsman

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