Egg Card > Reviews (197)

I did think of setting up a website to encourage people to donate their hard earned cash to pay off my credit card. Does anyone remember the girl who did just that? Her website is www.savekaryn.com and she paid off her $20,000 credit card bill with donations from strangers and selling some old stuff on ebay. Amazing. But then I thought, no, I'd like to keep some pride in tact.

It's one of those things you keep telling yourself you ought to do, isn't it? Say it isn't only me that has meant to transfer their credit card balance to another card for the last six months! After all, it's one of the easiest ways to save yourself a small fortune in interest, and yet for ages I have continually paid interest on my credit card bill at a much higher APR than necessary. I'm simply not into finance - and can't get excited about it, but like the average person, when it comes to saving a few pennies, I can be encouraged to make the effort.

So, after some encouragement from SueMagee last month extolling the virtues of writing a financial opinion, and of course the Ciao finance competition for December, I thought it was high time I wrote an opinion on my recent experiences with Egg. I see (at the time of writing) that 137 other Ciaoer's have beaten me to it, so at least if I don't answer any questions you have, you'll know where to look!

Why Choose Egg?
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I chose Egg for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the card is pretty. Secondly, I wanted 0% on balance transfers for a good few months so that I can pay off all my outstanding debts more easily. Thirdly, I wanted the convenience of being able to do all my financial transactions online, from any computer in any country at any time of my choosing. (even on Sky Digital if I want to!) Fourthly, I wanted some space back in my Important Stuff File (which was full of paper bank statements. Now a thing of the past.) Fifthly, I was attracted to the fact I was going to get a decision from Egg within about 30 seconds. And finally, I wanted a card I could use for shopping at lots of places. Egg is taken everywhere VISA is, which was a big selling point for me. That's 16 million locations worldwide!

Who Are Egg?
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Egg were actually started up by the Prudential, in 1998. If they hadn't had a solid name behind their conception, I think I would have been more wary of signing up with them. However, over a million of us now have, so they must be doing something right. Apart from the credit card, other Egg services include loans and banking, and household, travel and car insurance.

How do I get my Egg credit card?
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I hold my hands up and admit that I was fully expecting six forms to arrive in the post which would have to signed in triplicate, stamped by a customs official, and returned with 14 forms of identification as well as proof that the moles who live in my garden haven't run up a large worm bill.

I was wrong. (Savour that, it doesn't happen often. The admission, obviously!)

All I needed to do to get my Egg Card was the following.

1) go to www.egg.com and fill out a form, which took ten minutes and didn't involve having to rake for any paperwork at all. All I had to try and remember were my addresses from the past three years, and my current bank details.

2) Wait for a confirmation email and letter to say that my application had been successful and to tell me my new credit limit.

3) Receive my Egg Card in the post, and go online to activate it.

No having to deal with paperwork, envelopes, stamps, in fact no human contact at all. Heaven!

NB: You can't get an Egg card if you live in the Channel Islands or on the Isle of Man. Sorry! You also can't get one if Egg decide not to give one to you for any other reason, but that's not so very likely unless you have a bad credit rating.

Rates, Fees, and Payments
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Of course, the fact that you don't have to speak to anyone (unless you contact Customer Service) and the fact that your Egg account is managed completely online saves Egg overheads and admin costs, and they can then pass the savings on to the customer. It's a much more efficient way of doing business, and can only work in the consumer's favour financially.

There is no annual fee and the APR on purchases is currently 13.9% (until 1st June 2003). Goldfish, in comparison, is 17.9% and American Express Blue is 18.9%. I know that with MBNA my husband pays 15.9%. Although I could have found a better APR - the Halifax's online credit card Hx2 offers an APR of only 9.9% on purchases and balance transfers - I won't be paying anything at all on my transferred balance or purchases for the next six months. Nada, zil, nowt. A big fat 0%. (This applies if you sign up before 18 Dec, so hurry up!) It's ideal if you want to transfer your balance, pay it off, and then cut up your credit card, as I intended to. However, if I decide to keep the Egg card after all as I undoubtedly will, I also get cashback, which I will discuss in more detail later, as I didn't fully understand it until researching this opinion and I assume it's hideously complicated. ;-)

Charges you should be aware of include £20 if you go over your credit limit, or miss a payment, £2 for a paper statement and there is a 2.65% charge when you use your Egg Card to pay for anything in a foreign currency. They also charge £20 for tracing you if you have not told them of an address change.

You will get an email each month from Egg to tell you that your credit card statement is ready to be viewed. You then just go to the site to see it. Payments have to made monthly, and are only accepted by direct debit, or by using your switch/debit card. Being able to set up automatic payments is a weight off my mind, as I can simply forget about them and know they will be paid. You can choose whether to pay off your balance in full each month, the minimum amount, (which is either 2% or £5) or any amount of your own choosing. You can amend how you pay on a monthly basis or add additional payments at any time with your debit card. Just to be extra fantastic, if you pay your balance off in full each month regularly, you'll get an interest-free period of up to 45 days on all purchases you make.

Whoopee! (Chances of me paying credit card off in full each month - hmmm. Oh well, moles might fly!)

Security and Insurance
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When you log in, you need to give Egg the following details: name, postcode, date of birth, mother's maiden name and your password. Doing this every time makes me feel safer, as with many other sites you only need to give a username and password. Egg also use scroll down menus, which makes it harder for criminals to trace the information you put in. Your log on session lasts for 15 minutes of inactivity before Egg step in. This means if you accidentally leave the site open, it will log you off automatically after 15 minutes. Egg offer online fraud protection for purchases you make online, and also offer "free purchase protection" which is insurance in the event that something you buy gets lost, stolen or damaged before you receive it. This applies to anything costing £25 or more (for a maximum of £1000 per item).

The Website
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The Egg website (www.egg.com) is quite slow to load, which is my biggest problem with the site, as I am generally quite impatient. It's not a particularly interesting site, but it is simple and easy to use, which is probably what they are striving for. It is also very easy to remember!

Customer Service
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You can conduct most of your enquiries by email, which I find particularly useful. The one time I did phone Egg I was impressed by the friendly and helpful person on the other end of the phone.

The Mysterious And Highly Complicated Cashback Option
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All purchases made with your Egg Card will earn you 0.5% cash back. (Not so complex after all, it would seem.) This goes into your account in September each year, provided it's more than the minimum payment of £5. This has recently been lowered (from 1%) as Egg have now introduced Egg Rewards, a "range of great deals and offers that could save you hundreds of pounds" instead. Yawn! I would have preferred 1% cashback, but never mind!

The best bits all over again
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0% on balance transfers for six months
APR of only 13.9
The widespread acceptance of VISA
No annual fee
0.5% cash back on all purchases
Egg Reward Scheme
No more paper bank statements
No more annoying automated phone banking services
Shiny Happy Card
Automatic payments every month if you want them
No complicated forms to fill in
Almost instant decision from Egg
Can pay my credit card bill through my TV.

Oh, and hopefully less debt by June!