Egg Policy Change ?

oldtup

Psiloman

Yes it does work! The Observer article was prompted by me ringing my MP who is the one mentioned in the article (Tim Farron)

Power to the people. My EGG card is now at zero balance and I'm really going to bed! :j

robin58

What I have heard, it's got nothing to do if you are a bad payer.

I seems to be affecting most people who pay off their balance in full every month.

Saying 'your a credit risk' is Egg basically covering their !!!!! with spin, so as to justify their discision in getting rid of people.

I have an EGG card, not used it for a while, no balance on it. I have not received a letter yet.

Having now said that, I will most proberly find a letter from them on the doormat Monday. :rolleyes:

robin58

CannyJock wrote: »

Quote from the BBC news site:

"The move follows a "one-off" review after Egg was bought by US-based Citigroup for £575m last year. "

Presumably people can close their cards and then reapply in a few months to get a new card with a 0% balance transfer offer, and do a stooze at Egg's expense

May not be as easy as that. Most credit card companies are getting more strict on who they issue a credit card to now days.

Afahmaep

:mad: Egg Money for me (£500 limit), but still got an Egg Visa (£10,000 limit).

dag_2

I think Obe-one is right to point out the fact that your past payment history is not the only indicator of risk.

Large amounts of unused credit, either with Egg or elsewhere, are also a risk. That's why Martin Lewis himself advises to make a point of cancelling unused cards to improve your credit score. Admittedly, I have not yet followed this advice myself. After all, you could max your plastic at any time and do a runner to sunnier climes.

You might not think this risk is so significant if you have savings, particularly if your savings are larger than your credit limits. But then again, we're all at risk of befalling the same fate as Alan Chappelow. Someone could bump us off and pass themselves off as us, not just cleaning out all our savings, but maxing all our credit lines as well. Who picks up the tab when that happens? Certainly not the relatives of the deceased; I think you'll find it's usually the bank. That's just the way it is; it's certainly nothing to take personally.

However, the irony is that the accounts that the banks stand to lose the most on through fraud risks tend to be those with the largest amount of available credit, which in turn tend to be the accounts held by the most reliable payers.

I don't want to be alarmist, though. Fortunately, it's rare for people to be bumped off for their money. My point is just to say that anything could happen, and none of us live forever. There's more to risk than simply having a patchy payment history. We also need to stop thinking about the risks we pose to banks in moralistic terms. Being a "bad risk" to the bank does not mean that you're a bad person!

Although I still don't honestly believe that Egg are likely to have any immediate liquidity problems, the fact that this incident has made a few people jittery does worry me slightly. But then again, on the other hand, I think we're deluding ourselves if we think that Egg is more risky right now than any other bank.

The bigger picture is that the business performance of all products under the Egg brand have really not been good for quite some time now. Excellent customer service is one thing. But decent profits are quite something else. I honestly think that Citigroup could do worse than to can the entire operation - credit cards, savings, the whole lot.

But the fact that Citigroup have decided to can only a few accounts, rather than the whole lot, does seem to suggest that Citigroup still think that new life might yet hatch from the Egg.

The_Chicken

Egg Card (Visa) customer for eight years come March (or, would have been anyway!), never missed a payment during times I have a balance, and not had any outstanding balance for some time now.... account being closed by Egg.

Doesn't bother me that it's being closed, since I moved to a Mac I stopped using their online money manager as it's not compatible, which was the best thing about the account for me anyway!

Have to say though, the phrasing of the closure letter did panic me a bit and I had horrible thoughts that someone's been messing up my credit record with false borrowing, fraud or something, so checked with Experian and all seems fine and dandy there. Ah well....

Just wanted to add my voice to those a bit miffed who don't really need the card, but are unhappy with the way it has been handled.

Also learnt something new from this discussion about open and unused card accounts, prompted me to close another Visa account I keep open with no intention of using, so it's not all bad!

allaboard_2

link: Cruuuunch!





Does this mean I should shut my egg savings account, get my cash quick, and invest in tinned food, guns and ammo?

mdj1

They have just said on the news and i think its on the front page of one of the sunday tabloids that this decision is being looked into as it appears they are closing the accounts of people that pay their balance off every month.

I can understand if you don't use the card for x months, but if you pay it off every month and then don't like it then thats not on.

Kochanski

I have a pretty lousy credit rating at the minute. I currently owe over £400 on a £500 credit limit Egg Visa, paying £20 a month. I have missed payments in the past and have just received a new card to take me up to 2010.

I can't believe people with far better credit histories are getting treated like this when I would appear to be a far higher risk.

MABLE

Afahmaep wrote: »

:mad: Egg Money for me (£500 limit), but still got an Egg Visa (£10,000 limit).

AND....................