Applied for Egg Green card in May 05 - 0% confusion...

RubberDucky_3

All,

I applied for my Egg credit card on the 4th May 2005 - I was understanding it to be a 9 month 0% credit card. I had a credit limit of 5.5K which I promptly stoozed.

Anyway I set up a DD to pay off the minimum balance and forgot about it. So i got around to checking my statement online today and found that i'd been charged interest since 1st October - £96 so far. Ouch!!

I phoned up Egg and they told me that I applied for my card on the 5th April 2005 - where they got this date from is anyones idea!! And that it was only interest free for 6 months - I KNOW this to be false, i'm just not sure I can prove it. I have some documentation at home and i'll check it tonight but failing anything solid do I have any defence to recoup this interest?

I've used Egg Pay to pay off the 'debt' immediately - this should clear tomorrow.

Anyone have any useful suggestions for me?
I've also secure message'd Egg to get clarification of this scenario in writing.

Thanks
RD

Clariman

Hi RD - I'm sure you've learnt a bit of a lesson about keeping records and keeping on top of your stoozing credit cards, so I won't labour that point. The problem could be that Egg's cards are not typically "0% on BTs for 6 months", they are usually "0% on BTs until 1st of <insert month> 2005". So it could be that you applied in May for an offer that they had announced in April ... and that the offer was 0% on BTs until 1st October 2005. That is my guess as to what has happenned.

Clariman

YorkshireBoy

The Egg card's T&C's changed on 1st May 2005, becoming 9 months 0% on BT's (with a 2%, max £50 BT fee) and 6 months 0% on purchases IIRC.

The T&C’s of your offer would have been on the paperwork that you printed out during/at the end of the online application.

They will also be shown on your credit agreement that they sent you.

Your August/September statement may have warned you of the 'estimated interest' payable on your next statement if you didn’t settle the account in full by the end of the month.

However, and fundamentally, you’ll have paid a BT fee if you applied in May, whereas you wouldn’t if you applied in April.

Clariman

This is a good example of how one small slip wipes out stoozing profits. Assuming that £5500 was stoozed for 6 months at 4.75% interest, then the pre-tax stoozing profit would have been £130.62. After tax, a standard rate tax payer would have £104.50 net profit and the higher rate tax payer would have a net profit of £78.37.

So one month's interest charge of £96 would mean that a higher rate tax payer would make a loss for this one slip and a lowe rate tax payer would make £8.5o after one slip.

Clariman

RubberDucky_3

Ok so i've viewed my legal information via the Egg web site and I see this in the credit agreement:

"4.1
on Purchases put on the Account until 1 November 2005 at a monthly rate of 0% fixed until 1 November 2005, and thereafter at a monthly rate of 1.167%, 14.9% APR;

on Transferred Balances put on the Account until 1 February 2006 at a monthly rate of 0% fixed until 1 February 2006, and thereafter at a monthly rate of 1.167%, 17.3% APR (this APR is inclusive of a 2% handling fee); and otherwise (with the exception of Cash Advances)
at a monthly rate of 1.167%, 14.9% APR."

Note: 1 February 2006.

I've faxed these details to Egg and i'm waiting to hear from them.
It seems I am correct and they are wrong.

Also the £96 interest figure comes from £32 interest for October (1-16th) and £63 interest for Oct/Nov (17th - 16th); £92 is not the total interest for one month.

Also I did not pay a BT fee (as far as I am aware).

YorkshireBoy

RubberDucky wrote:

Also the £96 interest figure comes from £32 interest for October (1-16th) and £63 interest for Oct/Nov (17th - 16th); £92 is not the total interest for one month.

If you'd been checking your online statements thoroughly, you should have seen this trouble brewing a couple of months ago - and had time to address it before it got to this stage.

RubberDucky wrote:

Also I did not pay a BT fee (as far as I am aware).

You say "as far as I am aware", but why not check your first online statement from earlier this year? You would then 'know' if you'd paid a BT fee or not. Having said that, I wouldn't need to 'check' if I'd had to part with £50 to start stoozing - I'd just know!

HGLTsuperstar

Could they have got their figures back to front? You say you got the card on 4/5/05, they say 5/4/05?

RubberDucky_3

Ok, quick update; late reply appologies.

I checked my credit agreement online and it stated as I though that my interest free period expired in Feb 06 and not Oct 05. I phoned up Egg, spoke to a lovely lady called Claire who refunded all interest i'd been unfairly charged.

They said they could not extend my interest free period despite the fact that this is their error.

Anyway i've increased my limit (to 7k) so roll on anniversary period. Side note: are BT's done during this anniversary period charged a BT fee?

Thanks
RD