Egg Card - The Most Audacious Scam Ever?

YorkshireBoy

muffle wrote:

No, that is incorrect. I already stated that it was paid in full and on time.

The DD came out on 30th January which was the due date. The additional BACS payment for the balance was made on 26th January and cleared onto the Egg account on 30th January. Therefore the balance was paid in full on the due date and the DD was not affected by the additional payment.

I would also point out that you MUST at least have a DD set up for the minimum payment with Egg. When I tried to cancel the Direct Debits they phoned me and threatened to close the accounts unless I re-established the DD.

Now we're getting somewhere...

The 26th January was a Thursday. The DD collection date was the following Monday 30th January.

So, ignoring your day of payment and day of payment due, you left ONE working day for your BACS payment to clear.

The Egg T&C's state you must allow 3-4 working days for debit card payments to clear, and 7 working days for BACS payments to clear.

The root cause of your problem is that you paid (your balance less minimum payment direct debit amount) late.

PS: All those who said they were going to leave Egg as a result of this might want to reconsider now.

miller

muffle wrote:

The DD came out on 30th January which was the due date. The additional BACS payment for the balance was made on 26th January and cleared onto the Egg account on 30th January. Therefore the balance was paid in full on the due date and the DD was not affected by the additional payment.

Muffle I am sorry to hear of the problems you have been having with Egg. I think we have to consider Egg's recently changing attitude. My Last Anniversary date I had them on the phone trying to flog PPI ("I'll just add it" ). Their recent adverts show a card offering 0% on purchases for a period shorter than the 0% Balance Transfer period. *COUGH* Banking Code.

Me and Egg have had some good times, but their policies are starting to look scrambled.

charlie12

YorkshireBoy wrote:

The root cause of your problem is that you paid (your balance less minimum payment direct debit amount) late.

Agreed.

PS: All those who said they were going to leave Egg as a result of this might want to reconsider now.

As always, one should never cut one's nose off to spite one's face. Nothing wrong with Egg, everyone makes mistakes, it's up to you to decide whether the (excellent) benefits of an Egg card is worth losing over this.

muffle_2

YorkshireBoy wrote:

So, ignoring your day of payment and day of payment due, you left ONE working day for your BACS payment to clear.

The Egg T&C's state you must allow 3-4 working days for debit card payments to clear, and 7 working days for BACS payments to clear.

The root cause of your problem is that you paid (your balance less minimum payment direct debit amount) late.

PS: All those who said they were going to leave Egg as a result of this might want to reconsider now.

You seem to be determined to find an excuse for Egg. The additional payment I made was *cleared* on the due date as I already said. The statement shows it had cleared on this date and Egg admitted th at it was received in time.

You cannot ignore the date of payment and the due date as you suggest.

I'm not going to contribute any further to this thread as I believe the point has been made and the facts stated and repeated. If certain people want to deny the facts that's up to them.

YorkshireBoy

muffle wrote:

You seem to be determined to find an excuse for Egg.

I'm not trying to "find an excuse for Egg". Egg set the T&C's, and it's down to us to comply with them. The T&C's with regard to payment clearing times are very clear to me - you can't argue with black & white.

The additional payment I made was *cleared* on the due date as I already said. The statement shows it had cleared on this date and Egg admitted th at it was received in time.

I can appreciate your frustration, but your problems have been compounded by a poorly worded response from Egg customer services. The changes they 'tried' to refer to are to do with extended payment clearing times, which they recently announced. What Egg were 'trying' to say to you, in their communication, was that the only way to guarantee your payment reaches (and clears in) your account by the payment due date is to set up a full-payment direct debit.

So, with that misunderstanding out of the way, your statement did not show that the payment had 'cleared' - it showed that they had 'received' it. There is a very important difference between 'received' and 'cleared'. Let me try and explain the banking system to you.

First and foremost, when you sent your payment by BACS on the 26th, you were extremely fortunate that Egg 'received' it on the 30th. In my experience, the payment wouldn't normally have hit the Egg account until Tuesday 31st, ie you need 2 clear working days between sending it and Egg 'receiving' it.

When the payment is 'received' by Egg, they allocate it to your account. However, this payment does not 'clear' for another 3 days or so. This is why Egg say you should allow 7 working days (from sending it by BACS/online banking) for your payment to clear.

I'll give you an analogy...if I send £1,000 by online banking (BACS) from my current account to my savings account with ING Direct on a Monday, my money leaves my current account and 'disappears' for a couple of days - finally re-appearing in my ING account on the Thursday. My ING balance will then include the £1,000 but the account will show 'uncleared funds' of £1,000 (some providers, eg Barclays, will show you 2 balances in your secure area - one called 'balance' and one called 'available balance'. Only your 'available balance' is 'cleared' funds). ING will not let me withdraw this £1,000 for a further 3 days (possibly not before the following Tuesday) until it has 'cleared', ie they want to make sure my bank won't recall it for whatever reason. They will, however, pay me interest on the money from the day they 'receive' it, ie Thursday. When my ING statement is produced, my deposit will show as being made on the Thursday (even though it didn't 'clear' until the following Tuesday).

The same is true of your Egg payment. When Egg received your payment on the 30th, they had no way of knowing that your current account provider wouldn't retrieve/ask for the money back for whatever reason. This is why they need the 3 days - to make sure they don't end up 'out-of-pocket'.

You cannot ignore the date of payment and the due date as you suggest.

I'm not sure what you mean here?

I'm not going to contribute any further to this thread as I believe the point has been made and the facts stated and repeated. If certain people want to deny the facts that's up to them.

With respect, your stubborness will likely cost you more money in future if you do not listen to, and heed, the (free) advice you've been given on this thread. Even if you yourself refuse to accept it, there are many others who I'm sure will be grateful (and it's for them, as well as yourself, that I'm taking the trouble to respond and lay the matter to rest).

Finally, if you or others (joining you in your disappointment with Egg) would like to check out the validity and accuracy of my post, please feel free to copy and paste it in a secure message to Egg - and ask them to comment on it. If you choose to do so, please kindly post Egg's response.

Best Wishes
YorkshireBoy

tobago22

I would like to personally express my gratitude to YorkshireBoy for the time he has taken to clearly explain the situation with Egg. My anniversary offer is due to finish at the end of March and I would be clearing my account in exactly the same way. I will be much more carefull now.

I think it is time for muffle to admit that he has made a perfectly understandable mistake-one that any of us could make-and move on

laurat

tobago22 wrote:

I would like to personally express my gratitude to YorkshireBoy for the time he has taken to clearly explain the situation with Egg.

Ditto, great explanation YorkshireBoy. All makes much more sense now we have the full information!

Verbatim

Yorkshire Boy

A succinct and very much appreciated explanation of the system. Thanks for taking the time and troubble.

Joe_Bloggs

The situation stinks ! Egg have built in delays to the electronic BACS so that they now match or are worse than the postal cheque system. I thought this country was moving towards a next day BACS system not a seven working day system !
J_B.

Verbatim

Varying speeds of transfers.

On Monday I internet transferred £70 from my HSBC current A/C to my Nationwide Flex and have just seen transferred it to my esavings a/c as it was marked "available balance". Is this the same system as BACS? Any thoughts on why some transfers are quicker than others?