Good Card, Good Rates (Egg Card)

Member Name: KathrynPenguin

Product:	Egg Card
Date:	26/10/00 (359 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good rates

Disadvantages: Too much on offer

I’ve had my Egg card for well over a year now and I can tell you this is a great card.

~~~~ The Rates ~~~~
Egg’s rates are permanently low. Their current offer (for new cardholders) is 0% APR on New Purchases and balance transfers for six months. After your six month period is up the APR rises to 11.9% which is better than a lot of other cards. Periodically they offer reduced rates on balance transfers for existing cardholders as well, the last one I used was also at 0%.

~~~~ Security ~~~~
You do all your transactions directly through the website. The site has recently been redesigned and the logon allows you to view all your Egg products on the same screen. The logon procedure requires you to input your name, date of birth, Postcode, mothers maiden name and your password. For the date fields drop down fields are used to tighten security, the note on the site says:

“We are using drop downs in some places as this method of entering your details is more secure. Mouse clicks are much harder to trace than key stokes on your keyboard.”

It does take longer to input your details this way but its worth it if you are buying security. The credit card itself has a chip in as well as the magnetic strip. The chip in the card makes it harder for you to be ripped off by someone copying your card.

~~~~ Secure Online Shopping ~~~~
Another great benefit of the Egg card is that you get an Internet shopping guarantee. To give you peace of mind Egg guarantee that you will be covered “against any fraudulent transactions carried out without your knowledge or consent, whatever the amount.” If you are worried about the security of online shopping, this is the card for you.


~~~~ Bills & Payment ~~~~
One of the ways Egg can keep their interest rates down is by only offering you online transactions. When you apply for the card you set up a variable direct debit with your b
ank. When your statement is ready you are e-mailed telling you it is now online. You then logon to the site and you can view your statement. To pay you need to input how much you wish to pay, either the amount you want to pay, the full balance, or the minimum payment. The money is then taken from your account to reach Egg on your payment date. This is great for people like me who find it difficult to get to a bank and make payment. (Following a bad experience with NatWest Access some years ago I will not make postal payments). You don't get a statement in the post unless you request one, and there is a charge for this. You can however print your statements whilst online, they are offered in a print friendly format. My colleague did this for a balance transfer from Cahoot and Cahoot accepted the printed Egg statement.

~~~~ You Are In Control ~~~~
You have real control over your finances with Egg as you can logon to the site at any time and see the transactions which have been made on your account since your last statement. This means you can keep track of what you are spending accurately and easily. Of course you still have to worry about transactions that have been made manually (with one of the old swipe machines!). Two months ago I paid a dentist with this card and they still haven’t sent the slip in, so I still haven’t been billed, lets hope they lost it! You also do your balance transfers online, just type in the number of the card you wish to transfer from and the amount you wish to transfer and your transfer is done for you.

~~~~ Access Your Account From Work ~~~~
One of my favorite things about the Egg card is that you can access your account through a corporate firewall. This is great for people who don’t have internet access at home and great for those of us who like to check their accounts in their lunch break (who am I kidding!).

~~~~ Cashback ~~~~
With your Egg card you receive 1%
cashback with every purchase you make. Unfortunately you don’t get it on balance transfers. If you purchase online from an Egg approved retailer, all of which are accessible from the Egg shopping zone you get 2% cashback. Your cashback is credited to your account annually.

~~~~ Product Variety ~~~~
I invested in their shares thinking I was buying into a banking company but now they are offering insurance and a host of special offers. They send you a magazine every quarter telling you about all their products and offers. They don’t always get things done on time though. Out of interest I tried to find the information on one of the advertised products (a mobile phone) and had no luck at all. I emailed them and they apologised and said they had made a mistake advertising is before they had changed the site. It appeared 3 weeks later!

My colleague has an Egg card but no savings account. Two days ago he received an email telling him that if he opened an account he would receive £20. He asked if it was worth opening the account and I told him how good the interest rates were so he tried to sign up. When following the link in the email you were asked to enter a username and pass code, the email he was sent contained only a pass code. He phoned Egg and was told they had made a mistake and sent out the email (to a huge distribution list) erroneously. He was told that they would be rectifying this mistake and sending a new e-mail with the correct login information. A few weeks later they corrected their mistake and re-sent the e-mail.

~~~~ The Bottom Line ~~~~
The Egg card offers a high level of security together with good interest rates, your account is easily operated online saving you the hassle of queuing at the bank. Go on, take one out it might make my shares go up.

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