A Jeckyll and Hyde Credit card company (Egg Card)

Member Name: hypno06

Product:	Egg Card
Date:	10/01/09 (413 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: On line, easy ability to overpay

Disadvantages: Poor customer service

I have an Egg card, and an Egg loan - I have written a previous review about my Egg Loan in which I state that it is great when it works and pants when it doesn't. Now it is the turn of the Egg card experience to get the dooyoo treatement.....

Egg were part of Prudential before being floated off as a seperate business a few years ago. In more recent times, they have been acquired by the American bank Citibank.

I have had my Egg card for about 10 years, as has my Husband, after taking it out with the 0% offer. It was great - every year, on the anniversary of me taking the card out, I was given another interest free period for balance transfers, so could move money from other cards to reduce my monthly payments - at this time I was not able to repay my card balance in full each month, but could make more than the minimum payments, so to get 0% was very useful.

The APR at that time (when not on 0%) was 14.9% which was competitive when compared with other cards.

About 7 or 8 years went by with little in the way of problems - the account is operated online, with payments made by direct debit - it is easy to make additional payments, and you can see your balance online at any time, so easy to keep track on where you are in relation to your limit.

Then about two years ago, our nice friendly Egg card accounts decided to turn into moody teenagers, and even got quite nasty.

Now, we have never hidden away from the fact that we had a high level of non-mortgage debt (caused by a house that fell down, but that is a tale for another review...) but with sheer hard work and determination, we have attacked that debt, bringing it down at a great rate of knots over recent years. We have never missed a payment, or been over our limit on our Egg cards, and have paid extra where we possibly can.....we have never received a default or a CCJ, for example, and considered ourselves to be reasonably good customers......not causing any problems, yet still providing Egg with an income, because we were not paying our balance in full........

So, to receive letters a couple of years ago saying that the interest rate was being increased from 14.9% to 26.9% was a bit of a shock. We raised the query with Egg to ask why this had happened and the reply was "It's a business decision". They said that they had look at the way we had managed our account and based the increase on that. As I say, we have not presented ourselves to be a risk to Egg in any way, so we can only assume that they know we couldn't pay our balance in full each month, but knew we never missed payments so they were confident in knowing that they could increase their income stream from us. When we complained formally, we were told "we can do what we like" by a very nasty person at the end of the phone. There was no justification for this rise that they could give us, and the tone of all communication from them, whether by phone, secure message online, or by post was less than pleasant, and very upsetting for us when all we were trying to do was to clear our debt and keep our heads above water.

Anyway, the end result was that we continued paying their increased rates, and worked harder to get the balance cleared even quicker.

Then last year, Egg - having been taken over by Citibank - decided to write to many of their customers saying that they were closing their accounts......there seemed to be no method in their selection process, with people who were considered "efficient" customers targeted most. I was not "picked out of the hat at random" (the method I think Egg adopted here) but my husband was, and his account was stopped. Again, when we asked why, we were given no criteria (I couldn't understand why his had been picked and mine had not) and were told it was a "business decision".

Needless to say, we targetted our Egg card balances more than ever and cleared both accounts as a matter of protest.

I now have mine with a small limit that I use for grocery shopping and petrol, and I clear it in full every month - Egg are never getting another penny from me.

However, recently, out of the blue, I went to use my card and it was rejected. Now, I keep very tight tabs on my finances, and check balances daily, so I KNEW what was available on my card, so was hugely embarrassed and perplexed when this happened. I called Egg and asked why and they were very quick to admit they had made an error at their end, and to reinstate it, and I have had no problems since.

On the positive side - they are currently doing 2% cashback instantly if you fill up your car with petrol at a Shell Garage.....a small gesture but every little helps.

Between us, my husband and I have had many credit card providers over the years, and I can say that Egg are better than some and worse than others.

My biggest gripe with them is their lack of justification for their actions - "we can do what we like" is not really what you want to hear, and smacks of bullying to me. How can they expect their customers to "work with them" if they cannot be civil when you raise a very valid request?

I know many people will read this and say that you shouldn't have a credit card if you cannot afford to pay it in full, and that we have to take the consequences of higher rates etc, but life is not always as easy as that, despite best efforts, and when you feel as though you are working your butt off, and then being told it is still not good enough, it is a real drain on your emotional resources.

As I say, Egg no longer get a penny from us on our cards and that is the way it will stay - if they ever introduce a charge for having the account, I will close it immediately, but until then, I will carry on paying it in full as it suits me.

So, another "good when it works, pants when it doesn't" review, which I suspect is the same for many financial products.

Summary: They won't get any of MY money any more.