Egg Loophole - Case Study needed

JimSwaggert

I've got an egg card and needed to increase the limit to make an important purchase. When I applied they denied it automatically online. (it was for an extra £300!) They said I had to make a further application to a 'human'. There was a long delay in communications and when I looked into it I would be paying over the odds for it anyway at nearly 10% APR. So I simply signed up for another 0% card and it was OK'd, delivered and I ordered my purchase by the time Egg got back to me...and again knocked back my request for £300.

I wrote to them and told them that I had applied for an alternative card with a more favourable rate and that I only wanted a miniscule increase anyway. They wrote back saying I could now have the increase, but still at 10%.

Of course I told them to bog off as I now had a nice 12 month interest free loan on my purchase!

Who is running these operations????

sara2323

I have been doing this with both mine and husbands card with just having two months in between at another provider and back to Egg.

Though this year we were charged the 2.5% balance transfer fee although no communication about the charge in the original offer! Just noticed it online after transfer went through.

Jinos

I've had 3 anniversary 0% BTs with Egg and have never been charged a BT fee, last one was in February this year.
J

peawack

moontree wrote: »

I've had an Egg card for years and had never heard of this offer until I read the article here. How will I know when my anniversary comes around and I can take advantage of the 0% balance transfer? I can't remember at what time of year I applied for my Egg card, though I think it might have been in the spring...

You will get another (less competitive ) offer just before your 0% offer is due, in the hope that you are tempted to accept it. Thus you will be paying a higher rate BEFORE your 0% B/T repayment comes into play. Be careful.

anon-poster

I don't know who to contact about this but there's a bit of outdated info on that Egg loophole link.

Nothing major, but any BTs made from the middle of Feb 2007 onwards which were done during the anniversary month won't accrue interest on the BT fee. I can't remember the exact date, but pretty sure it's 14/02/07.

Any BTs done before that date will have interest charged on the BT fee. Apparently it was one contractor they had to employ to write the code for the changes in the system, this contractor went on long term sickness so the planned change was delayed by a few months as they had to wait for that person to come back and finish what they had started.

Depending on the size of the BT fee (it's usually 2.5% uncapped - but for some lucky customers they won't have a fee) then it could mean an extra saving of a few quid each month.

All this only applies to the 0% anniversary offer. The other offers that people are given will still have interest on the BT fee.

FifeSaver

We have used the loophole twice now but to be honest the BT fee and the short period of the offer makes is an unattractive proposition. It's only benefit is that you don't need a new application. But if you limit your applications to 2 or 3 in any six month period there should be no problem getting at least as good a deal elsewhere. Granted maybe not the ridiculously high credit limits that Egg set.

Watch the rate the charge after the 5 months too, pretty high.

I think the trap is that you transfer a number of card balances into the big Egg pot but at the end of the 5 months you would need maybe 3 or more transfers to get the money back out.

With hindsite it would have been better to try and spread the outstanding credit card balances over a small number of other cards with longer deals, which is what we are now doing.

The loophole won't be closed as it dos two things for Egg, it secures a 2.5% transfer fee on a lot of business and it traps people into their card because of the high credit limit. Break the addiction to Egg I say.

peterbaker

Is there a story here? Not one about getting one over on Egg I think, unless there was a way to force Egg to stick by the original deal (I was an original customer). The original deal was annual 0% APR Balance Transfers for 5 months at a time.

They changed the rules several times. I am no longer eligible as at the anniversary in 2006 as it was the last time they would offer 'it' to original customers, and in any event I passed up the opportunity because they had imposed a "handling fee" which meant that the APR was over 6% not 0%.

A real story might be if the OFT actually stopped companies like Egg (who since February are now Citibank by the way) from advertising these completely misleading deals which thesedays are targeting with impunity numpties who can't calculate APRs for toffee.

deadlydave

aleo1203 wrote: »

Not Good to credit card hop. Too many accounts over a short period of time can hurt your credit score.

indeed but never having any also causes the same problems no?...

regstevens

Be carefull, how much info we release!!! Some of us make a decent amount of $$$ income off of this on a yearly basis.

nedsram_2

jmf76 wrote: »

I used to rave to my friends about Egg being a great credit card to have - it's sad to see times have changed. I've just used my 3rd anniversary 0% on my Egg Credit Card and have been disappointed with their general customer service as well as the way they have changed their policy on fees & fee interest so couldn't wait to close the account - I remember when I first used it there was no transfer fee, let alone interest on it which they have done this time around.

Just have to get rid of my Egg money card now...

Four things to note about the Egg Money card.

1. If you previously had another Egg card, you will not get the "typical" interest rate, even if your credit rating is excellent. This is apparently reserved for new customers. (They deny this.)

2. If you attempt a purchase that would take you above your credit limit, this is refused. No problem there, but they then flag your last three purchases as "suspicious", and until you respond to their automated call, all subsequent transactions will be refused, regardless of whether the credit limit would have been exceeded. Not wonderful if you happen to be on holiday at the time. :mad: (Again they deny that they have such a policy.)

3. Although they yet again deny this, they have a ceiling limit of £100 on Internet (cardholder not present) purchases. I have so far had three such transactions declined.

4. The cashback limit is £200. Once you have reached this limit, use another card (that has cashback or a reward scheme).