Are there now BT fees on all Egg customers?

Milarky

I was looking at doing a short term balance transfer for 3.9% to my Egg card [green] which I have received notice of, but when looking at the "things you should know" it says a handling fee will be applied to this 'Special Promotion'.

Assuming that non 'Special Promotion' balance transfers are still free - in which case the Egg card can still be using as a mule for non-SBT cards at 0% - does this affect all customers - as I ask in my secure message, below - or only 'new' customers? Also, is this fee going to be levied [has it been, anyone?] on the 'anniversary' offers too, on the basis that the anniversary is also a 'Special Promtion' regardless of when you got your card?

[I will look up Egg T&Cs as well as posting Egg's reply when I receive it]

M

Secure_Message_to_Egg: wrote:

Could you please clairfy this for me?

I have been offered a 'Special Promotion' on my Egg card [visa] at 3.9% [please see link to page and quoted extract below for the details:]

My question is

1) will I be charged a 2% handling fee, as it states?

2) will I be offered a 0% 'anniversary' balance transfer at 0% in March 2006 [As I have taken advantage of these offers in March 2004 and March 2005 already, and March is my 'anniversary' therefore]? Will this offer count as a 'Special Promotion' in the same sense and include a 2% handling charge also?

3) Does the presence of a handling fee depend on when I originally applied for my Egg card, or does it now apply to all customers in the same way, regardless of when they applied for their cards?

Thanking you for your assistance.

https://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_67363--View_950,00.html?prop=186a

"Things you should know about the promotional balance transfer offer:
If you take advantage of this Special Promotion we will charge interest under this Special Promotion on transfers which are made to your Account from 5 October 2005 until 31 October 2005, at 3.9% pa, fixed from the date the transfer is put on the Account until 1 March 2006, and from 2 March 2006 at 15.9% pa variable."

"For each balance transfer made there is a 2% handling fee (maximum £50)."

charlieboycat

See http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,2388,3_11084--View_152-bID_EcBalTraFaq-dva_1,00.html where it says:

Is there a fee for balance transfers?
For all new customers who apply after 1 May 2005 a handling fee of 2% will be applied to balance transfers made in your introductory balance transfer period (except where we tell you otherwise). The maximum handling fee is £50.

My card was issued in 2004 and Egg confirmed to me by secure messaging that I wouldn't be charged a fee when I took up my anniversary offer this month.

Milarky

(except where we tell you otherwise).

Thanks charlieboycat,

That appears to be the distinction I missed. Egg reserves the right to charge for 'Special Promotions' up to the level of the fee introduced for new cardholders from May.

However, in these agreements, 'Special Promotion' means:

a promotion we may make available to all or some cardholders from time to time (excluding introductory offers available to new card holders).

which is a bit worrying as it appears to include anniversary offers. The question is therefore: what about 'old' customers' agreements, what's a 'Special promotion' in those? What's an 'anniversary' offer in those?

..Just a mo'. My old Egg agreement has 'Special Promotion' defined as above back in 2002, so clearly this is not the same thing as the 'anniversary' offer - which started life only in 2004. However. Egg could define the 'anniversary' offer as a 'Special Promtion' if it wanted to, I suspect, so that it may just be a case of what they are doing currently [as in your case] and not charging for these, still.

charlieboycat

Milarky wrote:

Egg reserves the right to charge for 'Special Promotions' up to the level of the fee introduced for new cardholders from May.

I read it the other way round ... ie. that for new customers they will charge except where they tell you that they won't.

However, your 3.9% deal appears to be a special offer (that I haven't received) outside of either your introductory offer period or your anniversary period, so I'm not sure where that leaves you. I suspect it may be that since it is a "special Offer" they can attach whatever T&C they like to it regardless of your normal T&C - such that for this "special offer" they can charge a fee to both pre and post May 2005 customers.

charlie12

My take: (of course this could change in the future)

(I'll refer to pre-May 1st customers as "old" and post-May 1st as "new" for clarity).

Special promotions are balance transfer offers that are not the same as introductory or anniversary offers. These special promotions offer a low (not zero) interest rate for a set number of months. They also have individual T&Cs. Prior to May 1st, AFAIK no handling fee was charged for these special promotions. Since May 1st, many people have been reporting that these offers now carry a handling fee, despite these customers having a pre-May 1st card. It doesn't necessarily mean that all special promotions now carry a handling charge, though it does appear that a lot of them do.

Naturally, new customers cannot get special promotion offers yet, as they'll all be in their introductory period until February at the very earliest.

Introductory offers are subject to a fee for new customers, but not for old.

Anniversary offers are not subject to fees for both new and old customers. I've had this confirmed by secure message from Egg, and I've quoted the response from them on this board a couple of months ago.

YorkshireBoy

I'm with you on this one charlie12. The special offer BT's causing all the problems seem to be the 1.9% & 3.9% 6 month personal invite promotions.

charlie12 wrote:

Anniversary offers are not subject to fees for both new and old customers. I've had this confirmed by secure message from Egg.

I've also had this confirmed by secure messaging.

Milarky

YorkshireBoy wrote:

I've also had this confirmed by secure messaging.

Yes, me also now. That's agreed then. Thanks to everyone for that.