Egg interest rate changes today

Ive just spent an hour on the phone with Egg getting the runaround following an email they sent this morning, telling me my interest rate was going to go up - by about 33% in my case. I happened to be at my computer when this email arrived so responded straight away, but customer services did admit that while they hadnt had a huge volume of calls about the changes today they did expect it to get busier later in the day. A quote from their mail says " At Egg we want to treat customers as individuals both in our approach to service and the products we offer. In line with this, we are now personalising the interest rate on your Egg Card. We have taken into account how you run your Egg Card and your relationship with us. This means for some customers, including you, the interest rate on your card will increase. In addition, there is a change to the cash handling fee which applies to all customers. "

My interest rate has changed from a never spectacularly competitive

15.9% to a whopping 21.9%, and they've given exactly eight DAYS notice of such a change. The general help line was unable to give any explanation of what particular circumstance, or pattern of use, had given rise to this change and said it merely reflected their policy of tailoring rates to circumstances. The usual runaround says that customer complaints can only be contacted by post but after getting a bit stroppy they did finally give me a number for them, and they said nothing except that they would register a complaint on my behalf and will write to me in a few days to let me know what they had done in respect of that complaint.

Obviously Im going to leave, right now, and I told them that. But what I want to know is about this condition buried in their page upon page of small print that allows them to take an existing customer who signed up with them at a particular rate and then simply change it to a much higher one, for no reason that they are prepared to state. Do standard credit card agreements do that - simply allow rate changes as and when they feel like, giving the customer only one recourse (of closing the account)? And when Egg write an email like that, do they really *not* expect to be deluged with complaints and closed accounts? Im not over my limit (never have been) but do owe them a fair bit which I pay off irregularly so they obviously make more than a few quid out of me to counter those who pay in full each month!

Reply to
nothanks
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Egg have put mine up by 1 % from 6.9 to 7.9. You have been done, mate. No mention of personalised rate on mine, just a raise.

mrcheerful

Reply to
mrcheerful

Your *Egg* card went up to 7.9%? A standard, vanilla flavoured green Egg card? On their website it says their 'standard' rate is 15.9

Reply to
nothanks

From 15.9% down to 9.9% for me - I guess this is because I usually clear the balance.

Reply to
Bill

Another Egg email for Savers, very carefully worded to be misleading at a quick read through in my opinion.

Dear Mr xxxx

As you may already know, the Bank of England recently increased the Base Rate from 4.50% to **4.75%.** Although the Base Rate guarantee on the Egg Savings Account (investor) expired at the end of 2002, we have adjusted the Egg Savings Account (investor) interest rate in line with the Bank of England Base Rate since then. Following the latest Base Rate increase, we'll be keeping the Egg Savings Account (investor) interest rate at **4.50% gross pa/AER (variable).**

Reply to
Steven Briggs

Oh, that's criminal.

Meanwhile, from the Yorkshire BS:

"On 3 August 2006, the Bank of England Base Rate was increased by 0.25% to

4.75%. The new rate for your Internet Saver has been increased by 0.15% on 13 August 2006, and will be increased by a further 0.25% to 5.10% gross p.a./AER* from 27 August 2006."

So, up 0.4% since the start of august. I can live with that!

tom

Reply to
Tom Anderson

Is that the Egg Money Mastercard? If so I haven't received such an "offer" - yet. Not that I have any intention of going into the red, so in my case it's academic - I'm in it for the cashback. Having said that, they are probably hiking the interest rate to help pay for the cashback, which they are committed to providing until "at least" the end of the year. No prizes for guessing what will happen then. Remember what happened to the Egg Visa cashback? First they halved it to 0.5% "in response to overwhelming customer demand", then they reduced it to 0.1%, and finally ditched it altogether.

Play them at their own game.

Reply to
BrianW

That would probably be the Egg Money Mastercard, which had a (sic) "typical" rate of 6.9% - unless like me you were a long standing customer, so they "offered" me 15.9%. :-(

Having said that, I thought the base rate went up by 0.25%. That's the increase they've applied to the savings account.

Reply to
BrianW

In other words they are no longer adjusting the interest rate in line with the base rate. I think they warned people of that previously. They want you to use the internet account. However I might just recommend that one to the Plain English Campaign for their "Golden Bull" award...

The wording I got for the internet account is as follows:

"As you may already know, the Bank of England recently increased the Base Rate from 4.50% to 4.75%. In line with our Base Rate guarantee to you, we've increased the rate on our Egg Savings Account (internet)."

I keep most of my savings in a Nationwide e-saver account. Not a market leading interest rate, but at least they are trustworthy - unlike Egg.

Reply to
BrianW

Eight days notice ?

Last year I had 6 hours notice, and my wifes' rate had already been changed by the time they bothered their arses to email her - in contravention of their own T&Cs where they're supposed to let you know in advance if a change will adversely affect the customer.

Reply to
Colin Wilson

I must have been a good boy, my interest rate went down from 15.9% to

9.9%, not that I would want to borrow money even at that rate.
Reply to
s_pickle2001

Beg pudding, it was my Egg Money credit card that went to 7.9. When I check my egg credit card (green) is at 15.9, but I wouldn't actually use that for anything and they haven't advised any changes on that one.

mrcheerful

Reply to
mrcheerful

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