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!
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Crisis? what crisis
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  • Re: Egg interest rate changes today
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  • Re: Egg interest rate changes today
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    (uk.finance)
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