Egg Cards

vwman_3

I was visiting a friend of mine yesterday when he received a phone call from Egg, apparently he has run up a debt of £1400 on his credit card using it on gamblings sites.
It would appear that they are not happy with him as they thought, he was in some sort of financial difficulty, and suspended his card, and also barred him from future use of any gambling site.
My friend had to go through an in depth interview over the phone about his finances and had to explain each and every transaction on his card for the last 6 weeks, even why he had been on two holidays this year and had also booked two for next year.
They also wanted to know about his wife's finances.
Now I fully agree that Egg have to be careful, however, the fact he pays off his account every month and has made nearly twice the outlay of bets is bu**er all to do with egg.
When I spoke to him afterwards I was surprised and annoyed to say the least, surely, if you are given a card and stay within your limit, pay it off each month then that no-one's business other than the card holder..........or am I missing something.
I also have an egg card, and after applying for it being granted a credit limit, staying within the T&C's, I will spend on it how and when I like, and no CS rep in egg or any other card company will get me to explain to them how and when or where I spend my money, (not that I gamble anyway).
If anyone who applies for a card and get's it wants to fitter it, away provided they stay within the terms of the arrangement then that is the card holders business.
My friend is far more placid than I am, I would have told them to stick it up their rear end.

Paul_Herring

Credit limits, and behaviour seen to be 'dangerous' in the view of the company providing that credit, are very much the business of the company.

Now, would your friend prefer to satisfy the company as to his financial situation, or have the company cancel his card? (The latter seems to happen fairly regularly without even the chance of appeal judging by some posts on here. Indeed Egg were the company that arbitrarily cancelled quite a few accounts some time back.)

Granted, I'd be peeved if I had to go into detail about my circumstances.... oh, hang on - I did. And I was. Still needed to go through it though.

vwman_3

Yes, I take your point, just seems to be over the top as far as some of the questions that were asked ie the holidays etc, the gambling aspect aside, I am fortunante be be able to take more than 2 holidays a year, I have had 5 this year, all paid for through egg.
I would not be very happy having to explain why I need to take so many holidays or whatever I was purchasing.
As far as I am concerned once the credit limit is set, then provided that the use of the card is not illegal or breaches any of the terms and conditions of the agreement then, that should be that.

lindsaym22

I´m sure people misuse cards a lot these days.... and in my opinion, if he was paying the amounts back every month, then that is not misuse. They decided to give him a card, so they should deal with what he does with it! Hope he told them he would not be using them again!

IWantToBeFree_2

lindsaym22 wrote: »

I´m sure people misuse cards a lot these days.... and in my opinion, if he was paying the amounts back every month, then that is not misuse. They decided to give him a card, so they should deal with what he does with it! Hope he told them he would not be using them again!

Cutting his nose off to spite his face though?!

I am having massive problems with Egg at the minute, I really want to tell them where to shove their account, however, it would be me that loses out and not them... They get no interest from me, yet I take cashback from them.... the best course of action would be for me to just spend more and cost them more

funkyhitman

Why is your friend using an egg credit card for gambling? They charge a flat £3 fee and interest per cash advance. I hate to think how much interest he's paid on it.

militantconsumer

On a rare occasion that I went on a mini-spending spree I got a call from Egg where they went through all the recent transactions with me to check they were genuine.

They thought my card might have been stolen because the spending didn't conform to the usual pattern. I didn't mind the inconvenience of the call to check that out.

I also know somebody whose current account was cleared out after their debit card was cloned and used on an internet gambling site. This transaction was completely out of the ordinary but wasn't queried by the bank.

I would rather they queried it with customers if they thought it was important. Either to prevent fraud or just because they need to be responsible lenders in the case of a credit card.