...
First of all who is Egg? Back in October 1998 Prudential created Egg as an e-commerce company and in June 2000 it was floated on the London Stock Exchange. It has over a million customers and a staff of over 2000 working from offices in London, Derby and Dudley. They operate 24 hours a ... Read review
Advantages: Online credit card offering 0.5% cashback. Disadvantages: It's only online and it's only 0.5%
...in October 1998 Prudential created Egg as an e-commerce company and in June 2000 it was floated on the London Stock Exchange. It has over a million customers and a staff of over 2000 working from offices in London, Derby and Dudley. They operate 24 hours a day, every day and you can manage your account via their website, via a WAP enabled mobile, over the telephone or even on digital TV. Royal Mail doesn't feature in their business plan other than ... ...When the application is submitted Egg will automatically run a credit check on you and the fact that this has been done will show on your credit file. I got an immediate decision including the credit limit that I wanted without a quibble. The card arrived through the post a few days later and I had to revisit the site to activate it.
Security on the site (which loads quite quickly despite the graphics) is excellent. To enter you have ... more
A credit card is a credit card, isn't it? They're all much the same, aren't they? They all go into shops and spend more money than you intended and then ask you for the cash once you've forgotten that you spent the money in the first place. Well they all work on the same basis but some are better than others and this is one of the better ones.
First of all who is Egg? Back in October 1998 Prudential created Egg as an e-commerce company and in June 2000 it was floated on the London Stock Exchange. It has over a million customers and a staff of over 2000 working from offices in London, Derby and Dudley. They operate 24 hours a day, every day and you can manage your account via their website, via a WAP enabled mobile, over the telephone or even on digital TV. Royal Mail doesn't feature in their business plan other than as the carrier of your card in the first place and then the odd bit of advertising material.
Your application for a credit card is made via the website. There's currently an offer of 0% interest on balance transfers and new purchases for six months. After that it's the standard variable rate of 13.9% APR (from 17 May 2002, but not notified to customers until mid June), compared to Barclaycard's 18.9%. There's no annual fee but be aware though that there's a cash withdrawal fee of 1.25% subject to a minimum charge of £2 and £20 charges if you're late in making a payment, you exceed your limit or a direct debit is unpaid.
As financial websites go this is good; it won the yell.com award for The Best Finance Site in 2001. My application for a card took me about ten minutes and the process seems to be substantially the same two years later. To apply you need to be at least 18 years of age, and permanently resident in the UK. You must have a bank or building society account which accepts Direct Debits. You need regular access to the Internet supported by 128 bit SSL encryption for security and to be contactable by e mail. When making the application you'll need to have available your Bank or Building Society account details for the Direct Debit, details of your income and your employer's address. You'll need to provide details of the addresses at which you've lived over the last two years.
When the application is submitted Egg will automatically run a credit check on you and the fact that this has been done will show on your credit file. I got an immediate decision including the credit limit that I wanted without a quibble. The card arrived through the post a few days later and I had to revisit the site to activate it.
Security on the site (which loads quite quickly despite the graphics) is excellent. To enter you have to give your name (making certain that you use exactly the name in which you made the application and not a diminutive or initials), date of birth, (on drop-downs, which are less-easily traceable than keyboard entries) your postcode and then your mother's maiden name and a password. On such occasions I never use my mother's maiden name as it's too easily traceable. After all, anyone who knows my cousin knows my mother's maiden name, so I use a different name. Effectively it's a second password but less guessable than one which most people could discover with a little research.
Statements (including all past statements) are available on the site. You receive an e mail telling you that the statement is there and an invitation to go and visit it. I always expect to be offered a cup of tea and a biscuit! I chose to have my statement towards the end of the month and to make payments just after the beginning of the next month as I find that this allows me to manage my finances most effectively, but you can set it up to suit yourself. I always try and organise major purchases so that they fall just after the statement date which maximises the time that I have the money sitting in the Bank earning me money!
You can chose your monthly payment and even change it from month to month. My account is set up so that the full amount is transferred in from my current account each month, but I could change it to making a payment of as little as 2% (subject to a £5 minimum) of the outstanding balance if that was what I needed. There is a facility to make additional payments in the course of the month, although I have never had cause to use this, so I can't comment on its effectiveness, but the procedure does seem straight forward.
If, like me, you repay the full balance each month there is little to distinguish the no-fee cards from each other, but the point which attracted me to Egg was the offer of cashback. Egg is now offering 0.5% of all purchases as a cashback, credited to your account each September, subject to a minimum of £5. There's no carry forward either so if your credit card spending is going to be less than £1000 in the year you won't qualify for the cashback. Last year when the cashback was 1% my credit meant that I had a week's free groceries in September. Very Useful!
I liked the 1% cashback. Well, it's difficult to dislike it isn't it? Then in September 2001 I got an e mail from Egg which began "We've been listening to you guys..." Now I always feel nervous when a financial institution addresses me in that way, not least because I wouldn't pass the medical. I feel that the basis of our relationship has been misunderstood by them, besides which, they hadn't been listening to what I'd been saying because I would have told them that the rewards that they were offering me in exchange for the reduction in cashback were of no use to me. My friend tells me that she will get some use out of the travel insurance that's offered, but I'm afraid I won't and nor did the wine offer appeal. One problem that I have is that it's very difficult to find out from the website exactly what is on offer and I'm always left with the feeling that there might be something that I've missed somewhere. Egg is just a little bit coy on this subject.
So, what else do you get? Well, there's free purchase protection for goods in transit. This means that your purchases, provided that they cost £25 or more are covered against damage, loss or theft before you get them home or for up to thirty days, whichever is first. The limit of the cover is £1000. There's also Egg Wallet. Egg has a link up with certain retailers and if you want to purchase from them you can do this via Egg and there will be no need to give your credit card number to the retailer. The principle is good, but the list of retailers who've joined up is limited - in fact the only one that rang a bell with me was CD-Wow, but more are promised. Considering that Egg will also be receiving commission from the retailers the fact that you still only get 0.5% as a cashback seems less than generous.
The account has operated well. In eighteen months I've never had cause to contact them. Every purchase has appeared correctly in the account and every Direct Debit has gone through on the correct day in the correct amount. I can't fault them. My friend had a problem when the Direct Debits weren't being credited to her account but Egg sorted the problem quickly and were most apologetic.
I'm sticking with Egg for the moment, but I have to admit that it's partly down to lethargy and current commitments, but soon I will be doing a bit of financial spring cleaning and looking to see if there's a better cashback deal that works as well as Egg.
Advantages: customer service is great, upto date balances are available 24 hours a day, easy access Disadvantages: none
...have been a customer with Egg now for nearly a year and the service I have received from Egg has been worldclass from day 1.
Egg is an internet bank where all your accounts are view and managed by you over the net.
Egg is like any other bank and offers all types of accounts from credit cards, to loans and savings.
The account opening is easy and you can apply online through their website at www.egg.com.
You just select the account you want and ... ...checked a few sites and Egg was the cheapest. At only 9.9% per anum on a loan of 3000. This is to pay off existing borrowing that exists on a few of my accounts. I applied for the account over the web yesturday and received a call from them today regarding my application. The operator was most welcoming and helpful and was very clear with what he was talking to me about and knew what he was saying and if I didn't understand anything he explained ...
coolchanty 29.04.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg
Advantages: Consistently good value for money Disadvantages: No current account facility
...of you who've read my Egg Credit card comments will be bored of my bad egg jokes now!
Egg offer fantastic allround value for money, and a very good service. I use many of their services which I list below.
SAVINGS ACCOUNT
Opening
Opening an account is really easy being done online. However Money Laundering regulations demand that all documents are in hard copy so you receive a completed application form to sign. Also, you need to prove your identity. ... ...date). Servicing
The egg website is really easy to use and is convenient to make payments to and from your current account. I've opened about 5 different savings accounts:
Christmas Account into which I pay a set amount each month so that Christmas is easily affordable;
Investor Account into which I pay a set amount each month to eventually invest in a shares ISA (this is an Egg requirement);
Credit Card Reserve Account into which I pay my credit ...
hthomas018 28.11.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg
Advantages: All your finances at your fingertips Disadvantages: Not a very easy site to navigate and loads of adverts!
...have recently applied for an Egg Credit Card as it offered 0% interest till January, this was much less than the HSBC card I have. I transferred the balance and I’m away! The balance transfer was done in two working days – How fantastically quick was that? I have previously done balance transfers that have taken the full 9 days they advise. The site was easy to log on to, you just add your name, date of birth, postcode, mothers maiden name and you ... ...I could open and Egg ISA online, the only problem is to do that you have to open a saving account too, and vice versa, this was a bit annoying as a simple transfer from my HSBC online account was how I wanted to add to my ISA. Never mind, I opened the ISA and they sent out the relevant declarations and paperwork, I promptly signed that and sent it back and the account was opened almost as quickly as the balance transfer. I must say that Egg is the ...
Redhead 15.08.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg
Advantages: Wide range of great products, save yourself time and loads of dosh Disadvantages: Nothing really, apart from maybe too many emails
Egg offer a wide range of financial products, savings and investment, insurance products, credit cards and loans. I know it’s a boring subject, but you could be a lot better off with some of the products from Egg, so I thought I’d write about it. I’m not familiar with their mortgage and loan products, though a brief look at financial comparison websites such as www.thisismoney.co.uk would appear to comfirm that they are pretty competitive. So this ... ...service.
I first discovered Egg nearly 4 years ago, when I needed to transfer a balance from my Barclaycard to the Egg card, which offered a completely interest free period for balance transfers and purchases over 6 months. This is still a major offer for new customers, and is currently still 6 months interest free, but now only for balance transfers. At the time when I joined, introductory offers were quite a new phenomenon, however nowadays they ...
Pauley123 22.08.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg
Advantages: Great facilities, security, and service Disadvantages: None
...impressive range of services that egg offers to its customers.
Firstly, there is the credit card. As soon as I saw the low rate of interest on transferred balances, I swiftly applied, using the easy internet application form, and transferred my old Natwest balance over. After a set time, this interest rate goes back up to the regular rate, but this is still around half of what bank credit cards sting you for.
The fact that you can control your ... ...Another great feature of the egg card is the cashback facility. Card owners can get 1% back on high street purchases and 2% on buying online. Additionally, buying at various affiliated shopping portals gets more cashback, thereby making purchases even cheaper.
Being an online banking site, egg also offer loans which offer very good terms of payment with good rates. At the moment I do not need to use this service, but if I do need a loan in the near ...
northers 31.08.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg
Advantages: Good customer service, Discount Rewards Disadvantages: Discounts change and other cards have better rewards
INTRO
I first decided to get an Egg Credit Card to take advantage of a 0% Interest Balance Transfer (BT) about 2-3 years ago. This was so that I could buy a £1,000 laptop (Samsung Q35). The interest free period was only 6 months but that's all I needed to pay off the balance. I think the BT fee was about 2.5% back then. It's a bit higher now, circa 3% in line with other credit card providers. They also have a 0% on purchases offer on the same card, at the same time alongside the balance transfer offer but this is usually shorter than the balance transfer so if you use both and you don't clear the balance before the end of the 0% interest on purchases period, you end up paying interest on the purchases spending unless you clear the entire balance as this is a sneaky tactic that most BT cards use.
ACCOUNT OPENING
Opening ...
Deru 18.10.2009
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg Card
Advantages: Simple application process. Very flexible personal finance. Low APR Disadvantages: Telesales staff very pushy with the payment protection sales.
After making a decision to buy a new car, (see my previous op!) I shopped around for the best loan deal I could find that suited me.
The most obvious places, like my bank, or the place I was buying my car from did not offer anything favourable to me.
What I was looking for was a loan where I could be flexible, i.e. be able to pay off lump sums when I can afford it, or increase my monthly payments or take a month off maybe now and then. It would also be nice to clear the debt without incurring penalty.
So, after checking my banks website, and calling them, I searched on the net for flexible loans. Two familiar names came up, Egg, and Cahoot.
The Cahoot site didn’t load for me, I am an impatient sort, so they lost my business straight away. Egg was looking good already!
The Egg folk offer a number of personal ...
alflavor 22.09.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg Loans
Advantages: Great interest rates, can view your balance whenever you want Disadvantages: Non
It’s alright for all these banks offering you savings account with crap interest rates. I don’t have a great deal of money to invest in a savings account and it worked out that I would be getting about 0.4% interest on a savings account from my bank HSBC, which I was a little disappointed by, ok, a lot disappointed by! I trotted around the net, had a look on my two favourite sites, ciao and dooyoo and decided to go for an internet savings account against the likes of other banks and superstores.
There isn’t a huge amount of choice in this field really, Smile, Cahoot and Egg being the main contenders. Egg seemed the best choice to me, they offered the highest interest and also, you didn’t need a current account with them to open a savings account, you can literally just have somewhere to put your money, plus ...
GR-Design 25.11.2002
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Egg Accounts
