Egg Money Under-hand %APR Allocation tactic.

terafarma

I recently applied for egg money mastercard on Egg's website and was accepted. However, looking through the credit agreement I could only see the 4%APR quoted for their positive balance interest rate, and not the applicable %APR interest for negative balance. Further emails to Egg on this came back with a bland "the application is still being processed and we'll get back to you soon".As I have a good credit history, I was expecting to receive egg's 7.9%APR negative balance interest rate. Shock horror and disbelief when they came back to me with a whopping 16.9%APR for negative balance.My anger and angst with egg was the under-hand tactic they employed in not disclosing the applicable %APR interest rate on negative balance on their online credit agreement form, until well after the card the account has been opened and the egg money mastercard issued.They mess up your credit record and hit you with unexpected and grossly inapplicable interest rate in the expectation that you'll accept it and then, hopefully, slip into negative balance, making good money off you.I have since cancelled the card as the under-hand tactic put me off using egg now, and in the near future.Anyone with similar experience from Egg?

Penelopa.Pitstop

It's the same with every card provider. You will learn your credit limit and APR when they process your application and accept you. Some of them may give instant information about credit limit.
Typical APR means that 2/3 of the clients will get this APR but it's not guaranted for everyone who applies for a card. In summary box for a card at Egg website there are two APR's: typical and other. Other is16.9%.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Must say that at least the Egg APR is slightly better than the M&S More Than card which is currently 18.9% APR, my 0% on purchases ran out in October nearly fell off my chair when I saw they were charging me £80+:eek: on a £5,000 balance.so switched most of it to CITI 5.9% for life of balance, more than satisfied with the monthly interest charge of around £20, until I can pay the who thing off. I for one will be closing my M&S.

CLAPTON

silly cancelling the card as eggmoney gives you 1% cashback on your spending.
If you pay off in full each month then the APR doesnot matter
In any event its quite competitive although you may do better.
and they have already done a credit search.

Lavendyr

It should have been on the screen when they told you your credit limit during the application - that's when I saw mine.

I'm on 16.9% with Egg Money too, but I pay the full balance off each month so it didn't really matter to me.

Milarky

It doesn't matter what negative rate you are on as the only way the card should be used is to

i) get cashback on purchases
ii) get 0% on purchases by repaying the balance in full by the due date
iii) putting through balance transfers 'from' Egg (i.e receiving transfers)
iv) minimizing the time any positive balance remains on the card (4% or not) by transferring this away (eg to 5.5% on Egg internet savings)

[ If it helps, I am a busy little Egg user - and always have been. I've never paid a penny 'debit' interest to them - and my standard rate is also 16.9 ]

Badger_Lady

I love my Egg Money card - I got it on the same rate as you, OP.

The reason they "only disclosed the 4%" is that the 4% on positive balances is guaranteed for everyone. The negative balance depends on your credit scoring, so it takes longer for them to work it out (i.e. after your application is processed). Knowing this, I wouldn't consider it "underhand".

And, as everyone else has already pointed out, it does have some major advantages.

Personally, I do ALL my spending on my Egg Money card and pay it off in full by direct debit. I therefore get about £25 a month "free money" via cashback without ever having to pay any interest at all. You also get the buyer protection that comes with using a credit card, and low balance-transfer promotions. The Egg Money Manager is also an excellent online tool for tracking all your financial accounts in one place (and they often run extra promotions for opening this up).

I'd also like to point out that, after the Credit Crunch, many, many credit cards put customers' APRs up to well over 20%. All my other credit cards did this - making them almost too dangerous to use (in case a payment is ever missed). Egg Money was the only card that kept their interest rate at 16.9%.

Hmmm... re-reading the above, I sound like their marketing agent! But this card does come with a Martin Lewis seal of approval, I'm afraid... if I were you I'd call up and find out if you're too late to keep the card after all.

missile

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote: »

I for one will be closing my M&S.

I wish you luck. I have written twice to close my M&S card and got no response. I have told them I shall complain to Ombudsman next.

jedimonkey

Took me a while to close my M&S card too. 3 Months if i remember correctly - got it sorted in the end

Grade_A_Reject

Badger_Lady wrote: »

Personally, I do ALL my spending on my Egg Money card and pay it off in full by direct debit. I therefore get about £25 a month "free money" via cashback without ever having to pay any interest at all. .

You can of course only get £25 per month for 8 months of the year as Egg's cashback is capped at £200. I find my £1000 severely restrictive in allowing me to reach my full cashback potential.

System

They can change it to the typical rate; you could ask once you've had, and used it for a few months.

I realise the best idea is not to borrow, but it's relatively cheap for short term borrowing, should the need arise.

:A