Egg card: interest rate rip-off?

Voyager2002

Hi,

Has anyone else had this experience with the 'classic' Egg card (not Egg money)? I use it for purchases and pay the full amount by direct debit each month. Yet I still find charges for 'merchandise interest'. On this statement the charge was 20p, last month it was 40 pence. Now, a charge of less than a pound is not worth a lot of fuss, but if this is a fault in their software then they are extracting a lot of money from all their customers.

When I queried these charges, I was told that it was because until recently I had only been making the minimum payment. Yes, I retained a balance during my anniversary offer, in the belief that interest free means you don't pay any interest. I paid off the entire balance the day the offer ended, and since on the same day changed the direct debit from minimum payment to full amount.

raa_thistle

were you still buying things when the anniversary offer was on?

Voyager2002

I don't think so, but I used it for purchases immediately after repaying the 'anniversary' balance. But I did check the terms of the offer, and it was supposed to be interest-free for BTs and purchases.

raa_thistle

The anniversary offer is only 0% for BTs, not for purchases. I still don't know why you would be charged interest though.

YorkshireBoy

Voyager2002 wrote:

But I did check the terms of the offer, and it was supposed to be interest-free for BTs and purchases.

Check them more thoroughly next time...

For applications made after 1 January 2005, you'll get our 0% offer again for up to five months on balances transferred in the anniversary month every year until 2007 - guaranteed.

For applications made on or before 31 December 2004, you'll get our 0% offer again for up to five months on balances transferred in the anniversary month every year until 2006. And that's guaranteed too.

Purchases are not included in the anniversary offer.

http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_65809--View_1363,00.html

YorkshireBoy

raa_thistle wrote:

The anniversary offer is only 0% for BTs, not for purchases. I still don't know why you would be charged interest though.

If OP is sure s/he didn't make any purchases during the 5 month anniversary period, the most likely reason will be starting the anniversary month with a small balance.

It's always best to have a statemented zero balance before making your anniversary BT.

EDIT: Having re-read the OP, is it possible that the 'balance clearing payment' was late (ref Egg's recent changes)? If so, then this recent thread might be of interest...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=150550

muffle_2

I'm going to assume for now that you made no purchases during the anniversary period.

You say you paid off the full balance on the day the offer ended. Are you sure you're not confusing this with the due date shown on the statement? If you waited until the due date, interest would have been due on the days between the offer actually ending and the due date. When I was given the offer I checked the T&Cs and the dates did not match, which is a sneaky way to trick you out of money.

Assuming again that you paid all statements off in full since the offer ending, you should have only been charged interest once as I understand it, so I can't explain why you'd get charged interest twice in a row.

I've also had an unexplained 35p interest charge on my statement which I do not understand. Maybe they're for the same reason.