The full verdict on the Egg Card (Egg Card)

Member Name: RupertS

Product:	Egg Card
Date:	04/05/01 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cashback, online security

Disadvantages: Lacking Experience, Poor Statements

1% / 2% Cash back, 0% on transfer, interested?

This is my experience with egg and an overview of there services.

Special Offer:
- Currently Egg is giving 0% interest on transferred balances for 6 months, nice bit of breathing time to sort out your finances, minimum of £200.
- [TIP] Transfer more than your balance, this will give extra you credit on your current credit card, and this credit will be interest free for 6months – sneaky!

Network:
- The Egg has partnered with the global VISA network to provide a credit card, which has no annual fee and gives you cash back on your purchases.

Standard Rates:
- 11.9%(variable) APR for debts at the end of the month, there are better deals around (i.e. Cahoot), but I pay my account of in full every month – well I will do when they sort out the direct debit!

Opening an Account:
- Everyone I have spoke to (a number of friends besides myself have egg credit cards) have all expressed problems of getting one in the first place. Mine took a couple of telephone calls to customer support but we sorted it in the end. When you get the account you have to log on to the site to activate it, which is a good form of insurance to make sure it has reached the right person.

Using the Card:
- Simply you can use it anywhere in the worlds were you see the VISA symbol (although read the problems section).

Notes about paying your bill:
- You cannot pay it from your egg savings account (as I attempted to do and failed!); you have to pay it from a current account.

- If you make an extra payment in between your direct debits the direct debit will not change, I managed to pay my account of twice in the first month as I wasn't informed that my direct debit had been set up - but they did put one of the payments back in to my current account immediately to rectify the situation.

Egg Internet Shopping guarantee
- “Whenever
you shop with your Egg Card online, we guarantee you will be covered against any fraudulent transactions carried out without your knowledge or consent, whatever the amount.” – This includes all sites, not just those via the egg shop!

Statements:
- The online statements lack information - they only show the store name only - not an address or even area of the purchase, they are very brief and seem to have a short history (i.e. only your last 15 transactions). There is room for improvement in this area. Don't expect to receive a paper copy of your statement - although it would be nice option!

Cash Back:
Very simply:
2% on purchases via the Egg Shop
1% on all other purchases
Nothing on cash advances of course!

Gold Cards:
- Alas not, those looking for kudos with a trendy card will not find it here; one card with one design suits all! (Natwest will do you a free Gold Card with Airmiles if you earn over £20k).

Customer Services [TIP]:
- You will find that there normal number for UK residents (08451 233 233 local rate call) is often engaged, there is a way around this, dial there international number (01268 298 807) - I've never had an engaged tone there but you might pay more for the call depending where you live - I call from the office, not a problem ;-)

- Once you've worked your way through 3 or 4 stages on there automatic telephone system you actually get through to someone - and I’ve never had more than 1 minute of hold music.

Problems:
- This evening I went to log on to my account, and all my Egg Card details have disappeared - I hope this means they have wiped my debts as well (I think not), this is the first time this has happened, I will update this opinion if it happens again!

- I tried to increase my credit limit on my card today, it is currently set around 15% of my wage, so I thought getting another £1k on there shouldn't be
a problem - but apparently it is - all because egg have made some previous mistakes with my direct debits, and now I'm penalised for it, and if I want to complain about it I have to write in – I don’t know how to write, never mind sent a letter, this e-generation!

- When out shopping I once had authorisation denied for the credit card, so had to bring out the Natwest Credit Card (the reserve), which worked. At the time I had plenty of credit in the account and when I called them later they couldn't give me an explanation, (didn't even blame computers which was a change!).

Conclusion:
- At the end of the day I will stick with the egg card, because I can view the (limited) bill online and mainly because they give me cash back - and money talks! If Barclays or Natwest offered this deal I'd probably move to them.

Summary: