Re: Egg Money

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Clifford Frisby <spamchute@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Are you saying there are layout is such that you would expect to be
able to have two separate balances running, +ve and -ve (e.g.
separate columns)? It would be unusual to regard such a beast as a
single account, even if they are shown in an otherwise integrated
way. In other words, if it *is* a single account, I would not really
expect to see separate balances at any time.


The layout certainly has separate columns for positive and negative
balances. The question is, can they both be populated at the same time? My
wife's first transaction on the account was a CC purchase - and that
appeared in the -ve balance column with nothing in the +ve. She then made
another purchase *and* paid some money in. I was expecting (perhaps
foolishly) the aggregate of the purchases to appear in the -ve column, with
the amount she paid in being in the +ve column. But no - there is just the
net figure in the +ve column, and nothing in the -ve column.


If they really do say 4% interest on +ve balances *and* up to x days
interest-free credit, that sounds like double counting of benefits.
But do they really say that?

Well, I thought they did - but looking again at the small print, they say
"Egg Money customers will get up to 50 days' interest-free credit on
purchases when they have a negative balance" - so it looks as if you don't
get *any* interest-free credit when you have a positive balance. You say
it's double counting of benefits, but surely the way I was *expecting* it to
work is no different from using a normal credit card, and saving the money
with which to pay the bill in full each month in an interest-bearing account
with another institution. The only difference is that the savings and the CC
are more closely integrated.


Consider the statement "No monthly payments required when you have a
positive balance." Under your interpretation, there wouldn't be any
point in stating such a thing, because you'd always have a positive
balance (albeit possibly a negative one as well).


It depends on how you/they define "monthly payments". When you open the
account, you have to authorise a DD which enables them to recover at least
the mimimum required payment each month from a third-party current account
when you have a negative balance. I interpreted "monthly payments" to mean
exercising the DD rather than simply transferring money from the 'savings'
side to the 'CC' side. I had assumed that the accumulated debt would be
cleared in this way once per month rather than instantly on a
per-transaction basis.



Is this how it's supposed to work? If so, she'd be better off
investing the inpayment elsewhere, letting the CC debt accummulate,
and then paying it off on the due date like a normal CC. Or am I
missing something?

This isn't meant to sound flippant, but I don't think they would have
unleashed the wrong implementation to the waiting world. They are not
an arm of the government, after all! But no, I don't think you are
missing anything: I can't see the point of it either. At least not
yet.


I wasn't meaning to suggest that Egg were treating my wife differently from
other customers, or that it was not working as they intended, but was really
asking whether I had drawn the wrong conclusions, based on just a handful of
transactions.


The trouble is, I can't immediately see the benefit of it even if it
worked the way you assumed it would. 4% is respectable, but nothing
to write home about.

From what I'm now seeing, if you keep a positive balance it behaves more
like a debit card than a credit card. But you do get at least 1% cashback on
purchases (allegedly) and probably get better purchase protection than you
would with a debit card. And it's probably still ok for my wife, bearing in
mind that if the money wasn't in the savings bit of the Egg Money account
where its' earning at least *some* interest, it would be in her First Direct
current account where it would earn *none*.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!


.

Relevant Pages