"Minimum Finance Charge" on empty Egg Card?

Mozette

benf90 wrote: »

Either something unusual happened for you or you dealt with somebody that was new etc as the minimum finance charge isn't a computing error.

As somebody else explained, it's the minimum amount of interest Egg will apply to a card each month. And to answer one of the original questions... no, it won't be charged every month.

It is only applied whenever any interest has accrued. If your balance stays at zero then you shouldn't have any more applied (as long as the payment for the 50p is cleared on time)... unless you had cash interest accruing on your card, in which case you will probably get one further 50p charge applied.

No, it was a 'genuine' error, but I had already cleared my balance before the statement - I see that the OP hadn't so yes, however few pence it was there is a minimum 50p charge. Still keep my egg money for the cashback and the fairly decent credit limit and APR that I have, so it's useful to me.

benf90

missile wrote: »

I would close the account. Banks should not make "mistakes". It costs you time and money and if you do not get a timely satisfactory response, vote with your feet.

I am not aware of anyone else who has a minimum interest charge?

Mistakes happen with any company, most of the time due to human error. It's more important to me how they sort out the error/mistake when it happens. Unless its a common occurance that happens again and again in which case I would find another alternative.

benf90

neilp wrote: »

Egg have done the same thing to me. The refunded it immediately when I pointed out the error. Nonetheless, I am in the process of closing my accounts with them. They were good for several years but there have been too many customer service blunders recently. Even closing the accounts has been more difficult than it need to be. I made the request 2 months ago and it hasn't happened yet!

If you had a 50p balance on there then it wouldn't have closed because of that. Cards with a negative balance on them won't close straight away, they go into 'pending closure' - this just makes the system check every day and when the balance goes to zero then it closes it.

However, it only stays in that status for a temporary period of time. After which, if there is still a balance then it doesn't close and you have to ask again.

Your account may well actually be closed though because you aren't sent any confirmation once it happens. Also, when its closed you are sometimes still able to see the details on the website, so if you're just presuming its not closed then ask them whether or not it is.

If your balance is now zero then just give them a call and it will be closed straight away (a message through the website won't necessarily close it straight away).

missile

benf90 wrote: »

Mistakes happen with any company, most of the time due to human error. It's more important to me how they sort out the error/mistake when it happens. Unless its a common occurance that happens again and again in which case I would find another alternative.

Of course anyone can make a mistake, OP said he did not get a satisfactory response & I said

if

you do not get a timely satisfactory response, vote with your feet

Nell34

I have had an egg card for quite a few years. I have not used it for a couple of months and so the 50p charge stood out. I immediately sent a message asking for an explanation.

I pay the balance in full each month by D/D so don't pay them any interest or charges apart from when I have been abroad, etc when charges apply.

I have now reviewed my statements a little more closely and find several of these charges this year, but I had overlooked them as they seemed linked to foreign transactions and I had - wrongly - assumed they were some kind of small commission on the Euro payments.

Why should I pay a "minimum finance charge" when I had not even used the card that month, let alone incurred interest?????

benf90

Nell34 wrote: »

Why should I pay a "minimum finance charge" when I had not even used the card that month, let alone incurred interest?????

It is only applied when there has been interest accrued during that statement period. Whether you believe interest should/shouldn't be accruing on your account, for the minimum finance charge to have been applied means interest is accruing.

If you can't see why it is then it may be best to contact Egg again if they didn't fully explain why it's been applied. It's most commonly due to a cash advance (almost certain to be this as you pay the full balance by Direct Debit).