egg is a bit cracked (Egg Card)

Member Name: pgevans

Product:	Egg Card
Date:	02/05/01 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 1% cashback (2% with shopping partners)

Disadvantages: No paper statement, website unreliable, problems crediting account

I've had an egg credit card for about 18 months now, so I was a fairly early adopter. I always pay my bill in full, so I was attracted by the 1% cashback, which as I put most of my spending through my credit card, mounts up to a lot of money (a damn sight better that Barclaycard points - £20,000 for a toaster anyone?).

Incidentally, I closed my Alliance and Leicester card when I moved to egg as the cashback deal is much less attractive and also because I was interested in the online offerings.

Application was far from painless. their web server at the time was horribly overloaded and frequently lost the details, but I perservered and received my card fairly quickly. I also had no problem raising my credit limit to the level of my A&L bill (just sent in an old bill to prove it).

The old egg site was horrible. Trying to print off my monthly statement was a trial, as at the time they had no 'printer friendly' formats available. I was forced to copy and paste into notepad. Things have got better, although the new web site is covered in patronizing web-speak, pictures of ugly people and is just not as functional as several other providers (the Halifax credit card site is very good and AMEX - at least in the US - have had an excellent site for years).

The most unforgivable aspect of egg is that, as an internet based service, it has often been unavailable. This has, in the (recent) past, been for a period of several days. This is not acceptable for an internet banking service.

Also the phone banking can take ages to get through to - compare with the excellent First Direct on this score. Their staff do seem pretty good at sorting problems - which I think is a necessary thing.

Another issue is payment. If you stray from their direct debit payment system and try and pay through BACS transfer, it can take up to 10 days for the funds to make it through. As it will be in their account in 3/4 days, this must be bec
ause either the computer systems are not up to the task, or even worse, they actually have people typing these credits into the system as they receive them.

Finally, another payement issue is the period of time of interest free credit you receive. There are at most 14 days between your statement date and the date the money is taken by direct debit - I get about 21 with my Halifax card.

To put these issues in context, I can access internet during the day on a high speed connection, so they are not modem related.

In conclusion, egg have a good concept. The cashback rate is as high as you'll find (highest if you go through their shopping partners), but I want reliability as well as money back.

I'm moving to the Halifax cashback card, which also offers 1% and has a cleaner website - and good old fashioned paper statements.

For the moment I'm keeping my egg card, but having also had problems with the savings account, I'm not likely to buy any further products from them.

Summary: