Help to fill out judgement by default against Egg please

[thekat1979]

Can anyone offer any advice? I was one of the people that Egg decided was a bad idea to lend money too so ended my agreement. In the letter they said it wouldn't affect my credit rating if I kept paying the minimum monthly repayments and that I could keep doing this until the debt was cleared off (I may have assumed that bit, but I can't find the letter to confirm).

 

Anyway, I've been paying off the Egg debt with minimum monthly payments which is all that I can afford. I cut my Egg card up (it didn't work anymore anyway), and I haven't missed a single Egg payment since.

 

However, out of curiosity, I logged in to my Egg account today after receiving my monthly 'your statement is ready' e-mail and got the shock of my life. My balance is now MORE than it was before i started paying it back, they have increased my interest rate to 26.9% (from 15.9%) and all that my monthly payments are doing it paying off ALMOST all of the interest they are charging each month. 8 ( To add insult to injury, I am sure they have increased my credit limit as well! It is now £760.00 limit and I'm almost positive I was £750 - how on earth am I supposed to pay this debt off, I really can't afford the amount I'm paying now as minimum payment at around £15 a month, (interest is coming in at around £15.50). I'm on Income Support and disability benefits and while when I still had the credit card with them, the £15 was KIND of still available to me in emergencies, now that I can't use the card at all, it is money I'm struggling to find each month. I thought I was paying it off a bit at a time, but it would appear now I'm not. What can I do? I really can't pay more than I currently am (and could do with paying less)...EEP! I'm stuck!

[FinancialNinja]

If I were you I would fight fire with fire and send them a CCA request!!

 

The template is on here and it will cost you a pound plus the postage.

See what they send back and then adjust your strategy accordingly.

 

Good Luck

 

FN

[2Grumpy]

Be prepared for egg to have the CCA though ...

 

This is really sneaky of them to do this, especially with the minimum payment being less than the interest.

 

I'm not sure, but you might be able to argue that since they ended the agreement, they should not be increasing the interest rate. Maybe there is something in unfair trading regulations - they are effectively abusing their position

.

Does anyone else have any ideas about that?

[thekat1979]

Hi, I've not done this before, so really not sure where to start and I'm getting confused. Where do I start? What letter do I need to send first to claim unfair charges onto my account by Egg? I was one of the ones that they cancelled the card of, but hiked up the interest rate and all the money I am paying in to the card right now is going on interest alone and it is out of Income Support and I can't afford that. I would like to get the Egg card out of the way. I'm hoping that claiming back my unfair charges will help reduce the amount I owe significantly. My balance is 'only' £764 and I was being charged pretty much on a monthly basis for late payments etc (bad management on my part, but on Income Support it was REALLY difficult to have the money where I needed it when I needed it). I'm in a real mess overall, not just with Egg, and I'm a little overwhelmed by what to do first, when to do it etc. I'm just confused when I try reading the FAQ section, I really do need an idiot guide!

 

Manh thanks,

[Mistermind]

Egg is much easier to reclaim from than other cards because they do not fight provided you push the right buttons in sequence. It's all been done before and fully described. Plain letters in English will do. See

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/egg/165877-emlv-egg-advice-please.html#post1786133

[thekat1979]

Thanks - I really don't want to get the wording wrong though. Should I just send a letter to Egg with a postal order for £5 and asking for info on all late payment charges and penalty charges? Is there a template for this letter so that I get the wording right? Sorry - I REALLY need a proper idiots guide !

 

Katie

[Mistermind]

asking for info on all late payment charges and penalty charges?

 

Congratulations Katie you have just invented the requisite template letter , especially if you add the phrases "late payment charges" and "overlimit charges". Egg staff facing 2 million cardholders have responded to this all day long endlessly for 2.5 years. Once they have eyed a keyword they hardly read the rest, instead they trigger predefined procedures according to their rulebook. Egg do not split hairs so legalese is unnecessary. If you further introduce yourself as a member of CAG they will know you know they know you know they know they will pay out in the end.

 

You will save yourself an extra exchange of letters if you include a photocopy of drivers licence or passport, and one original recent utilities bill to prove you are who you are where you are.

 

Good luck Katie.

[thekat1979]

Hi all,

 

I'm about to S.A.R. Egg to get a full list of charges placed on my account (I've incurred a few sadly and I was one of the ones that had their card cancelled and I just want done with the card and think this will help to reduce the overall balance - will at least decrease the amount of interest I'm still paying while TRYING to clear it). Anyway - my question is this - I know you can reclaim CC charges for late payment and failed DDs (I think). But what about charges that are received AFTER they decreased to £12.00. Personally I think this is STILL too much, there is no way it costs that much! But, are these reclaimable as well?

 

Hope you can help.

[Bookworm]

Yes, claim the whole lot.

[thekat1979]

Thank you x

[Mistermind]

On 5th April 2006 the OFT pronounced that penalty charges above £12 were not on. Egg wrangled a special concession of £16 from OFT saying an internet-based card was a special situation. Around June 2006 Egg lowered their charges from £20 to £16 where it stayed, so you should not see any £12 charges.

 

After you first reclaim letter Egg will send you a template reply to baffle the uninitiated saying the OFT gave them the blessing for £16. This was not true, and you can comprehensively refute their claim with the following template letter tailored to your details. There is no point sending that effort as your first letter, as the Egg clerk will simply ignore your wording and send out their template letter mechanically. Sent out as your second letter it generally would suffice, saving all the legal paperwork hassle and expense, as Egg do not make a reclaim song and dance against claimants who know Egg will pay out.

 

Good luck.

 

03 weeks - 22 JAN 2008 - WINNING TEMPLATE LETTER - andrew_nwide - WON!! Egg Smashed £900

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/egg/53376-e-day-victory-over-5.html

Edited November 9, 2008 by Mistermind

[thekat1979]

Hi all,

 

Egg MAY be acting properly, I'm not sure. I wanted to see what you all thought. My DD was returned to them a fortnight ago for 30.00. Stupid Bardclays Reserve fee meant I didn't have enough in my account. Anyway, checked my bank account online because there was less in my account than I thought, and it would appear that they have taken 15.00 out of my account on 20th. This was very much without my knowledge and a really random amount as that is less than the minimum payment I am supposed to make so I'm really not sure where they have plucked that amount from! Just wanted to vent more than anything else! My heart is telling me that it can't be that good a thing to take a random amount of money, without telling me, on a date that is 2 weeks away from my DD? Grrrr!

[rory32]

I would certainly query it under the Direct Debit guarantee Direct Debit - your rights

[thekat1979]

I just had a look at my Egg statement online at it says that the 15.00 is, and I quote, 'AD HOC INTERIM DD - PAYMENT'. What on EARTH is that?!

[thekat1979]

I got a replacement card sent out - just as they decided to let me stop using my card - and on my credit file the old card shows as a settled credit card and the replacement card that i've never been able to use obviously as they stopped the account shows up as a new card. I don't have similar issues when debit cards have been re-issued, but this is my only credit card -0 is this normal? It may well be, but would like to just double check.

[thekat1979]

Does anyone know what this might be about? I really want to sort this out. It looks like I owe double the amount I actually do! It wasn't a new agreement, just a replacement card.

[bobbyh99]

I have had numerous credit cards over the years but haven't heard of them doing this.

 

Is the new card for a new account number or is it the same account number as the old card?

 

BobbyH

[thekat1979]

Exact same account - obviously a different 16 digit number across the front on the card, but the actual account it is in relation to is different. I don't get it at all.

[bobbyh99]

Isn't the 16 digit number the account number for credit cards?? I might be wrong but sounds as though you have a new account!

[thekat1979]

I don't think it is - I thought it always changed so that if you got a new card you had to re-do any regular payments set up on that card because of the new card number.

 

If I have got a new account - which I was NEVER allowed to use as they issued the card a week before they then told me they were not allowing me to use my account any more, then what can I do? It looks like I have 2 credit cards - even though one is said to be 'settled' it is still there saying my closing balance was the same as the opening balance on the newer card. Surely they cannot do that if they have opened up a new account?

[thekat1979]

I MEANT surely they can't just open up a new account -0 sorry the last sentence wasn't that great!

[bobbyh99]

I know whenever I get issued a new card, say the old one expired, then generally I think the 16 digit number stays the same and the only thing that would change would be the start/end date and the security number on the signature strip.

 

Is there any adverse credit markers against either entry on the CRA report, like late payments, defaults etc?

 

Have you written to them and asked what this new account is and why you have a new account showing up?

[thekat1979]

I've only just been looking into all this. I noticed the 2 account when I got my CRA file. I've already sent off an SAR to Egg for trying to reclaim bank charges and have included both numbers they have for me, so hopefully that will provide me with info about what is going on with them. If not, I'll write to them and ask what is going on. I certainly didn't ask them for a new account.

[thekat1979]

Oh, adverse markers. On the one showing as 'settled' there is nothing but OK markers. All up to date - hence annoyed at them cancelling my card. On the 2nd card, there are some late payment markers, but ONLY because they charged me £16.00 and hiked my interest up because one direct debit didn't go though and I paid it by card the next day - there had been a mix up on my bank account. But they wouldn't listen, and I was only paying a little off the balance after interest each month - literally pence. So the £16 put me overdrawn so they charged me again and I havent' got the money to correct it now. Not happy but will get things sorted slowly one thing at a time lol.

[thekat1979]

OK - bit of digging done and this is what I've found out...

 

Egg did a balance transfer about a year ago from the one card number to the new one.

 

When looking at my credit agreement online, it is the one dated for the ORIGINAL card I had, but says it is in relation to the account number I NOW have.

 

The 2 cards definitely appear as 2 separate entries on my credit file. Theo older one as a settled credit card debt, the new one stating it began about a month after the first one ended.

 

Still waiting for even a confirmation that I have sent an SAR to them to begin trying to get my penalty charges back which would enable me to come under my limit.

 

Bit concerned mainly about the fact that they did a balance transfer from one card to another without my consent. Ist that normal? That seems to be my main issue I think - is it normal for a credit card to change number COMPETELY when all that was needed was a re-issue.