An Eggcellent card (Egg Card)

Member Name: hthomas1531

Product:	Egg Card
Date:	06/12/02 (190 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 0% interest for 6 months, Cashback

Disadvantages: Cashback could be higher

Sorry couldn't resist the pun!

Egg have done well with this card, and they've grown their market share dramatically over the past 2 years. This shows how good their card is in itself.

APPLICATION
Obviously, you can apply over the internet(www.egg.com). However the Consumer Credit Act states that you have to sign for it, so Egg will send a completed application form for you to sign. Money Laundering laws also require them to ask for your identity, so you need some recent utility bills (except mobile phone bills) and bank statements to verify who you are. These are general finance laws though, so all credit card companies have to comply.

INTEREST
Obviously, 0% interest for 6 months is good for clearing your debts and consolidating. However, most credit cards are offering this now. When I applied for the card, they said that the interest rate would be 0% until a specific date. However, that date on the website changed and moved forward by a month each month. I was caught out because I assumed that the date for my card moved forward with it. Just remember....THE INTEREST IS 12.3% AFTER 6 MONTHS OF YOUR AGREEMENT.

CASHBACK
Yes a 0.5% cashback is good. It's not the best I've seen though. Morethan offer 1.6% cashback for 6 months so I've started using them. They're not mentioned in the CIAO website though. The cashback is paid to your current back account a year after being with them, so if you get an Egg card you have to be with them for the long-haul.

CUSTOMER SERVICE
The customer service is good, and I haven't had to wait for long when dialling their service centre to talk to someone. Bear in mind that unlike FirstDirect, you don't go straight through to a person, and you will have to be answered by a computer initially.

I have had problems transferring balances to Egg, from my American Express card (since a transfer has to be done by cheque with AMEX and not electroni
cally). This led to Amex charging me £10 for late payment. However, Egg promptly refunded me the £10, so no complaints there!

INTERNET SITE
You will have to use the internet for managing the account (although that shouldn't be a problem if you're reading this!). If you do this, make sure you look at using the 'EGG MONEY MANAGER' where you can post details of all your website bank accounts and credit cards. It does make managing your money so much easier and convenient.

The website is very user friendly, however if you do use 'EGG MONEY MANAGER' the balances can take quite a while to load as the website has to 'contact' all your other website accounts.

INSURANCE
If you do take out the Egg card, you can get a 10% discount currently on household and travel insurance from Egg (although I use Tesco Personal Finance as it's quotes for me were cheaper). Anyway, it may benefit you.

DESIGN
The design is quite cool, and I've had people comment on the card. I know its not a reason to get a new card, but if you like green, you'll like the design!

COMPETITION
If you apply for the card now, there's a competition to win £5,000 (although FirstDirect have an incentive of half a case of wine if you open a credit card with them).

Overall, the credit card is exceptionally good and better if you make full use of the facilities at Egg. The only major disadvantage I can see is that they don't send statements. I've had some problems where I needed to query a transaction made at Tesco and they wanted to see my credit card statement. They refused to accept my Egg Online statement as they said that I could have tampered with it. This may be more of a criticism of Tesco than Egg, though!

Internet accounts are competitive, but Egg is one of the best all round packages. But, why not do what I do....shop around. If you want high cashback, go Morethan; for low inte
rest, go Marbles or Egg (0% for 6 months); for the best customer service, go FirstDirect; if you're feeling ethical, go Co-Operative.

There's not limit to the amount of credit cards that you have, but be careful and remember that it's not free money, it does need to be repaid (sorry to sound patronising!).

Summary: