Egg card blocked as a precaution ... anyone else?

robpitt

Just had a letter telling me that my Egg card is being blocked as a precaution and that new ones are coming within 7-days - doh!

Just wondered if anyone else got one of these?

dj1471

Yes, me too. I think it's unacceptable that they say there's a "potential security risk" without telling me what it is; if they've done something to compromise a number of accounts they should tell us what's going on.

Not happy that I won't receive a replacement card until AFTER this one has been cancelled, either.

mtc863

Yes, me too. Got one of these letters last Saturday saying the card would be cancelled on Tuesday. Got the replacement card on Thursday though.
If there was such a security problem, why give notice to cancel the card? Or why not send out the new cards and cancel the old one after the new one has been activated?
It's worth noting that you don't just only get a new card, you get a completely new account and account number.

Simon_Pugsley

I can only assume they have their reasons. My card was blocked once as a result of it being cloned, thankfully egg blocked a £2000 transaction going through.

Simon

DifferentFromTheNorm

Are they the standard Egg Card (Visa), not the Egg Money? When I worked for Egg those letters were sent out when Visa advised them of a potential security risk.

Unfortunately the reason for it could be anything and I doubt you'll find out what it is exactly. I'm not even sure if Egg are told by Visa what the problem is.

dj1471 - I doubt it's anything that Egg have done, we'd no doubt see a lot more letters being sent if it was. It's more likely to be a retailer has lost card details or had them stolen etc.

immoral_angeluk

I can appreciate your frustration, but I think condisering the possible implications if there was a risk and they hadn't done anything, then I think it's actually good of them to be proactive in trying to avoid fraud in the first place..

dj1471

OK, I was tempted to blame Egg because they've not given any details on what's happened. If it's just a retailer that's been compromised in some way that's fine, but why not tell us that? It doesn't matter if they don't know which one, as long as I can understand the risk - is it just my credit card that's compromised, or is it personal details too (i.e. enough for identity theft)?

My whinge about them not providing a new card before cancelling the existing one stands, though

@DifferentFromTheNorm - it's the Egg World Mastercard (formerly Egg Money), at least in my case.

RobertoMoir

dj1471 wrote: »

OK, I was tempted to blame Egg because they've not given any details on what's happened. If it's just a retailer that's been compromised in some way that's fine, but why not tell us that? It doesn't matter if they don't know which one, as long as I can understand the risk - is it just my credit card that's compromised, or is it personal details too (i.e. enough for identity theft)?

They should specify if its your account specifically that has been compromised, I agree there, but they may not provide details so as not to provide pointers about weaknesses to people looking to exploit their system in the future.

My whinge about them not providing a new card before cancelling the existing one stands, though

Obviously very inconvenient. More or less inconvenient than some scallywag emptying out your account while they gave a new card time to arrive in the post?

dj1471

RobertoMoir wrote: »

Obviously very inconvenient. More or less inconvenient than some scallywag emptying out your account while they gave a new card time to arrive in the post?

Actually I gave this some thought after my last post. Based on past experience, no, for me as a customer it wouldn't be any more inconvenient to be a victim of credit card fraud. The end result is the same - the card gets cancelled and I have to wait for a new one.

go4it

I've had the same letter.

I've had an Egg card for a while. I would like to think I have a good understanding of how the company works. Basically if they are not making money from you then try to get rid of you.

My card is Egg Money. Taken out before the charge on it. Rate used to be 7.9%. A few months ago I was told it was going up to 12.9%. I then got sent an offer for BT at 0% a few months. Now I have been informed that the rate is going up again to 16.9%.

However they do make it very clear that you have the option to cancel the card and pay off the amount outstanding at the old rate.

To me this just smells of Egg trying to get rid of people. That is the sort of company they are.

Eydon

Had mine cancelled as well.

What struck me as odd was that they didn't block it immediately. The letter arrived on the Friday saying that the card would be blocked from the following Tuesday.

Now that I know it wasn't just me I'm starting to suspect even more that it's a problem Egg's end rather than mine.