Egg cracks down on bad customers

[reidnet]

BBC NEWS | Business | Egg cracks down on bad customers

Ian

[hellhasnofury]

Hello Your elusive b**g*r,

See you've managed to put the old Rowies down for a minute

Ha ha, just picked myself of the floor with that one.

Eh, bit suspect that one, do you think they have trawled throught their databases to see if they have actually have the credit agreements for the customers that they are writing too.

Call me cynical I know

[SteveH2508]

Well, they are silly ovoids! Now, they get to repay me ALL of their charges (No £16 cr*p here) and they lose my £3000 ISA as well.

I have nothing to lose - you do!

[oldtup]

I've been an Egg cardholder for about 5 years. In that time I've never used more than around 60% of my credit limit of £10,000, never missed a payment and for the past year have been around 10% of my limit and paid off the full balance every month. I have no other card debts save for just over £2,000 on balance transfer being paid off at Barclaycard. (Paying the monthly minimum as its a very low rate, but again - never missing a payment)
Egg have now written to me ending my agreement in 35 days. They talk about payment history and account conduct.
Is this pure incompetence? Or is it simply that they aren't making enough money out of me as I don't pay them interest?

[MARTIN3030]

any chance of seeing the letter ?

[Mistermind]

The Egg was sold by the Prudential to the Citi group in late 2006 or early 2007. Not surprising if their new owners want to review their account profitabilities.

The timing of this move is interesting, not sure if it would be followed by similar moves by other cards. It could be that Egg is now expecting a legal ruling soon putting a binding cap on their penalty charges, thus making it no longer worth their while to service high-risk accounts, which until recently earned their keep because of the exhorbitant revenue they brought to Egg through £20 then £16 penalties.

This timing also comes in the wake of the US sub-prime lending debacle. It is not only Northern Rock which now finds it hard to borrow on the open market, for sure credit card institutions as well. Possibly Egg's review of accounts has highlighted the unprofitability of servicing both the poorest and the richest cardholders.

If such account trimming does spread industry wide, I wonder if this signals the end at last of the UK credit card explosion offering indiscriminate lending, made profitable in no small measure by exhorbitant penalty charges from those who fall foul of their unlawful T&C.

[oldtup]

You know, I don't actually mind if they say that they want to concentrate on the most profitable accounts. But I DO object to them saying that they are weeding out the risky accounts when they are actually terminating the risky accounts AND the low earning accounts.

[RFisher33]

Its utter madness. I paid my balance off in full in October/November and haven't used the card since and they write to me today saying they are ending the agreement and will beclosing the account!!

Does anybody know if this will show up bad on my credit report?

I phoned them today and told them to close it now as I didn't need it.

[tomterm8]

Originally Posted by RFisher33

Its utter madness. I paid my balance off in full in October/November and haven't used the card since and they write to me today saying they are ending the agreement and will beclosing the account!!

Does anybody know if this will show up bad on my credit report?

I phoned them today and told them to close it now as I didn't need it.

No, it won't harm your credit report; in fact, one less card probably improves it slightly with most lenders.

[oldtup]

The truth is that the majority of businesses would benefit by losing their bottom 7% of customers. (Which is what Egg reckon they are terminating)
As a businessman myself, the reason I don't do this is because of the effect it would have on the remaining 93%

Egg deserve to have some publicity over this. 160,000 card holders is a lot of people to upset. Bear in mind that each of these will probably share the news with the family and perhaps over 1 million people are going to lose any illusions that they had about the nature of this bank. I'm going to be interested to see just how much of a storm they will have over this.

The irony is that there are much better ways to approach this issue, it's got all the hallmarks of a beancounter unfettered by a decent PR dept.

[Mistermind]

If Egg are braced to face a well publicized storm over their 160,000 card closures they are likely to want to keep their other controversies quiet -- one possible reason for the two full reclaims reported last week as settled in record time after one letter to Egg with no argument, taking surprisingly three weeks and one week respectively.

If so, let other claimants be aware of this window, open for now.

[oldtup]

Good point!

Just before I sign off and go to bed.....

Have just checked the Egg site for info about the card. The current interest rate is 16.9%, but it points out that this is variable depending upon the customer. If I tell; you that my current rate is 10.9% then it does give you an idea of the level of credit risk that I have been assessed at.

It all bears out the point that this purge is partly about risk but mainly about profit. Their press statement is simply dishonest.

[MARTIN3030]

Originally Posted by Mistermind

The Egg was sold by the Prudential to the Citi group in late 2006 or early 2007. Not surprising if their new owners want to review their account profitabilities.

The timing of this move is interesting, not sure if it would be followed by similar moves by other cards. It could be that Egg is now expecting a legal ruling soon putting a binding cap on their penalty charges, thus making it no longer worth their while to service high-risk accounts, which until recently earned their keep because of the exhorbitant revenue they brought to Egg through £20 then £16 penalties.

This timing also comes in the wake of the US sub-prime lending debacle. It is not only Northern Rock which now finds it hard to borrow on the open market, for sure credit card institutions as well. Possibly Egg's review of accounts has highlighted the unprofitability of servicing both the poorest and the richest cardholders.

If such account trimming does spread industry wide, I wonder if this signals the end at last of the UK credit card explosion offering indiscriminate lending, made profitable in no small measure by exhorbitant penalty charges from those who fall foul of their unlawful T&C.

Absolutely bang on....I could not have put it better.


And to all those who are questioning this and talking about Egg.......lets just get used to the idea that we are not talking about Egg....but the citi financial group.
I am very tempted to say more......but if you read up on Cities track record in particular Citi threads on this forum.....you will be left in no doubt that here is a company who has shown little regard quite often for its customers not just here but also in the US.....USATODAY.com - Citigroup agrees to pay $2B to settle Enron lawsuit

[SteveH2508]

Originally Posted by RFisher33

Its utter madness. I paid my balance off in full in October/November and haven't used the card since and they write to me today saying they are ending the agreement and will beclosing the account!!

Does anybody know if this will show up bad on my credit report?

I phoned them today and told them to close it now as I didn't need it.

I paid my balance off in full last May (about £7K) and have been paying in full every month now. I knew about Ciiti taking them over (and I am not Citi's favourite customer right now either!). I have Mr Smith wriggling in a corner at the moment with no way out

[electron99]

Like others I have never missed or been late on a payment,never taken the card to the limit, and always pay more than the minimum amount.I too have received one of these letters.Cynical me thinks it is because I am a low rate of interest, and do not have PPI. I have another egg credit card with a higher rate, and PPI, which i will now transfer to a special offer card (if I can find one). As far as I am concerned Egg are no longer concerned about the model customers that most other businesses would love; so Goodbye Egg.Unfortunately I have never had any illegal charges otherwise I would be claiming them back.

[bathgatebuyer]

I got my letter this morning. Apparently I'm a credit risk.

I would suggest I was a credit risk, but having reduced my debts from £34K to £3K in 18 months, I'm actually a fairly responsible customer who is shortly going to be saving £400-£500 a month once the remaining balance of their other (not my Egg card) cards are paid off. Not to mentioning moving a £100K mortgage once my fixed term is up.

Guess who I won't be going to EVER for finance?