Egg Money Card - Raising the credit limit

Frugal_Foxy

I've been trying to raise my credit limit for some time. When I got my card last year it had a miserly £1500 limit. I've been trying online and emailing them for weeks to try and get mine raised. (Am good credit risk)

Today, I had to speak to their special credit management section as this was the only way they would consider an increase, ie one assessed by a human being. The guy told me the call would take 30 to 45 mins - I almost hung up right away. :eek:

Anyways, after wanting to know what I spend every penny of my income on... and asking similar questions lots of different way, I guess to try and trip up a disreputable person, they agreed, after 45 mins! that I was a good risk - they even called the credit ref agency whilst I was asked to hold on. I have to say, a lot of the questions were belittling and I did lose it a few times - my friend Sarcy Casm came out to play!

However, what I learnt was that the Egg Money card was not marketed as a cash back credit card, it is marketed as a bank account - I guess the clue was in the title 'Egg Money'. Thus, the credit limit is actually akin to the overdraft limit of a bank account. They told me that is why they don't like people having big credit limits on that card and actually said if I'd applied on the usual Visa credit card, I'd have got the limit way easier.

So there you go. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar challenges when trying to raise their credit limit on this card.

One thing though, if all credit card companies put their customers through a similar process, there wouldn't be so much bad debt in society.....

take care
FF

Dagobert

45 minutes - that's pretty swift! Last year, I had my limit raised to £3K after a 1 hr 15 min phone-call.

They inquired about every detail about my monthly spending; what about TV and mobile phone bills - he was incredulous that I had neither; and what had I done with the £3K balance transfer a few months back, why I wasn't paying off my other credit card in full if I had so much in savings; and why had I withdrawn them from the Egg savings account?

And they connected to Experian while I was on the phone and went through every single account.

student100

I got the Egg Money with a £500 limit as a student about 15 months ago. 3 months later I tried to get them to raise the limit - was told a firm 'no' as I was a student. About December last year I applied online to have the limit raised to £1000 - was accepted instantly (even though I was still a student...).

Now I am no longer a student and am in employment, I applied online for an increased limit of £2000, accepted instantly. Perhaps the fact that I had a balance of about £750 on the card had something to do with it?

I have only ever used the card as a credit card, none of the pre-loading nonsense. But I do use it for regular spending and it's paid off in full every month.

Grade_A_Reject

Frugal_Foxy wrote: »

One thing though, if all credit card companies put their customers through a similar process, there wouldn't be so much bad debt in society.....

Got to agree on that one. Phoning in the morning to see if I can get my £1000 limit doubled. Have made "one off payments" totaling £1900 in the last 2 months to keep me within my limit which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't take at least 7 days to process!

Grade_A_Reject

Phoned Egg this morning to apply for a higher limit and was given a "no" but was advised to send a secure email to appeal against the computer's decision.

Just got a secure message back saying "
We've reviewed your credit limit, and unfortunately on this occasion we're unable to approve your request. Your credit limit will therefore remain unchanged at this time."

This was despite pointing out the number of one-off payments I'm having to make and the fact that the account has been used correctly (although from their perspective I'm not sure whether not incurring any interest charges is a good thing or not).

The last time my application for an increased limit was declined I was told it was because I had balances on other cards so it appeared I was maxing myself out and was desperate for credit. This time I have no other card balances anywhere else and have £1000+ sitting in my Egg ISA account.

I've just sent another secure message asking what criteria I'm failing on when being refused an increase.

wayoflife

Grade_A_Reject wrote: »

Phoned Egg this morning to apply for a higher limit and was given a "no" but was advised to send a secure email to appeal against the computer's decision.

Just got a secure message back saying "
We've reviewed your credit limit, and unfortunately on this occasion we're unable to approve your request. Your credit limit will therefore remain unchanged at this time."

This was despite pointing out the number of one-off payments I'm having to make and the fact that the account has been used correctly (although from their perspective I'm not sure whether not incurring any interest charges is a good thing or not).

The last time my application for an increased limit was declined I was told it was because I had balances on other cards so it appeared I was maxing myself out and was desperate for credit. This time I have no other card balances anywhere else and have £1000+ sitting in my Egg ISA account.

I've just sent another secure message asking what criteria I'm failing on when being refused an increase.

tell me about it! this whole thing is ridiculous, but hey who are we to judge......

o yes thats right, were the people who are keeping the credit card companies in business!!!! I love the way they act as if it is like a priveledge to be with them...I know credit is not a right but still...

I only have £500.00 limit with egg, but I think thats because I applied for a card only a few days before this one. Im waiting about 4 months before I ask I fink

Paul_Herring

Frugal_Foxy wrote: »

So there you go. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar challenges when trying to raise their credit limit on this card.

Yes. See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=428292 for my experience.

Miss_Behaving

I just applied for an egg money account on line and after entering all details, agreeing terms etc they gave an instant decision with a credit limit of £1,100. I was surprised that it was so low and rang to find out why as it was my intention to cancel my other cards and just use the egg one.

The CS rep asked why I needed more credit and I explained that if my car broke down or I had a household emergency I wanted to be sure I could cover any costs. She suggested that I pay £1,000 into the account as a precaution. I politely explained that it was not good finance to remove £1k from a high interest account and place it in one paying 4%. She said I could appeal but it would take a while - after reading everyone else's comments, I'm glad I didn't bother and just cancelled the account.

[Deleted User]

You could apply for an egg card, run it for a while and then close it but get that limit added to egg money. It worked for me to get a high limit on egg money.

Andybez38

After reading this thread about Egg money credit limits, i thought i would apply online for an increase. I was origianly given a £1400 credit limit. My account has been running for 8 months now, no missed payments etc. I applied online for an increase asking for £2500, and it was given to me straight away. No questions asked, no interigating phone calls.

I have been trying to rebuild my credit rating over the last 18 months now, and have been able to obtain 0% cards. I dont know how credit card companys rate their potential customers, but i was supprised at the increase being given, no questions asked.

fox_2

my card limit is low.. but egg is sooooo usefull for transfering money to your current account from other cards. I keep is as my regualr card and pay off in full each month, but get a higher limit on all my others card . The get maxed out with balance transfers that i put on egg, then into my current account, then into icesave to get 6%.