Advice for confused Egg Card novice?

beniamino

I have an Egg Card. A couple of days ago I bought a £400 item with it. The payment will be reimbursed to my credit card (by my employer) in a few weeks. The problem is, today, I got an Egg Card statement showing that the card balance will be automatically paid off in full on the 1st October. I want to have my employer reimburse the money, without paying the card off doubly and ending up with a £400 positive balance. How can I achieve this?

If I allow the card to be paid off in full on the 1st Oct, and then my employer reimburses, I'll end up with a £400 positive balance. Is there a way to transfer this money back to my current account afterwards? [It would take me a long time to just spend the positive balance on the credit card.]

Alternatively, I could try ringing Egg and prevent them paying off the card. Will this even be possible if it's an automatic direct debit? Also, the T&Cs seem to say I'll pay interest on the outstanding balance until the reimbursement happens. Can that be right? When I applied for the card, I thought there was a 60(ish) day interest-free period, but now it seems to be only 2 weeks.

As you can see, I'm confused. Any advice would be much appreciated.

clio

Just change the direct debit to min payment via egg online and after october payment date change it back again to pay full amount.

TrickyDicky

You can normally cancel a DD as long as its a few days before the payment date. Just ring them up, or go via egg online and change it for this month.

beniamino

Thanks clio and TrickyDicky. The problem is that, as far as I can see (hopefully wrong!), the T&Cs say I'll pay interest on the £400 if I don't pay the balance in full on the 1st Oct. Here's the relevant part:

4.3 We will charge interest on all amounts making up the Balance on a daily basis at the relevant rate set out in Condition 4.1 above from the date each Transaction and Charge is made. Interest will be charged until the Balance has been repaid in full. We will not, however, charge interest on Purchases listed in your last statement, if you pay the Statement Total on or before the Payment Date. We may charge interest on interest if you do not pay your minimum payment.

YorkshireBoy

Assuming it's an Egg Card (Visa) and not an Egg Money card (Mastercard)...

Why not just leave the full payment DD in place (for collection a week on Wednesday) and ask your employer to pay your expenses into your bank account? After all, you have two weeks to action this don't you?

Alternatively, give Egg a call and ask them the question you're asking here...namely if you finish up with a £400 +ve balance will they refund it to your current account FOC?

Your back-up plan is a balance transfer of your overdraft once the additional payment has arrived. You MUST check there is no 'special promotion' (see your T&C's) on your account before doing this because if there is they will automatically apply a BT fee...even if you're using a positive balance.

benf90

beniamino wrote: »

I have an Egg Card. A couple of days ago I bought a £400 item with it. The payment will be reimbursed to my credit card (by my employer) in a few weeks. The problem is, today, I got an Egg Card statement showing that the card balance will be automatically paid off in full on the 1st October. I want to have my employer reimburse the money, without paying the card off doubly and ending up with a £400 positive balance. How can I achieve this?

If I allow the card to be paid off in full on the 1st Oct, and then my employer reimburses, I'll end up with a £400 positive balance. Is there a way to transfer this money back to my current account afterwards? [It would take me a long time to just spend the positive balance on the credit card.]

Alternatively, I could try ringing Egg and prevent them paying off the card. Will this even be possible if it's an automatic direct debit? Also, the T&Cs seem to say I'll pay interest on the outstanding balance until the reimbursement happens. Can that be right? When I applied for the card, I thought there was a 60(ish) day interest-free period, but now it seems to be only 2 weeks.

As you can see, I'm confused. Any advice would be much appreciated.

The easiest thing to do, as mentioned previously, is to pay the credit card yourself and then ask your employer to pay the funds into your current account.

Technically, you're not meant to use an Egg Card for business expenses as the T&Cs state it's for personal use only and must not be used 'to carry out Transactions on behalf of, or to receive payments from, any business or other organisation'. Although they may just turn a blind eye it may not be such a good idea to speak to them about using the card for business purposes.

If you do speak to them just don't mention it's being used for business expenses etc.

The 'interest free' period with an Egg Card (the Visa) is up to 45 days. Your statement balance must be cleared in full by the payment due date (14 days after your statement) in order to avoid interest.

For example:

statement date = 10th of each month, payment date = 24th of each month.

A purchase made on the 8th will be shown on the statement produced on the 10th, and payment due on the 24, meaning it will have 16 days interest free.

A purchases made on the 11th won't be due for payment until the following month, meaning it may get the 45 days (depending on how many days in that month).

The key words to understanding the interest free period are 'up to'. Most transactions will be less than the 45 days.

beniamino

Thanks for the advice, everyone. The resolution: "Luckily", our car died yesterday and needed exactly £400 of work doing. So I've put that on the credit card, will pay it off next month and then the balance will hit zero again. And thanks particularly, benf90, for explaining the importance of 'up to'.

By the way, the purchase was a bike under the government's 'Green Transport Initiative', so it's not a business expense.