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Egg Customers Reach Boiling Point
(26-02-08) - Online credit card issuer Egg has been asked to furnish its embittered former customers with a full apology, following a cull of over 160,000 card holders.
Record complaints for credit card procedures were registered with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) when Egg(www.egg.com) elected to withdraw cards from a significant number of its customer base. Egg tagged these customers as a ‘high risk’, but the majority of culled customers dispute this, suggesting that Egg terminated their cards because they no longer represent an opportunity for Egg to profit.
Labour MP Nigel Griffiths, himself a former consumer affairs minister, is meeting Ian Keer, the chief executive of Egg, to discuss the motive behind Egg’s credit card withdrawals.
Said Mr Griffiths:
‘If you want to get rid of customers who are not bad credit risks but who you just don't make money out of, then you should make a charge for your card. Egg has got a lot of explaining to do’
He continues:
‘One letter I received was from someone in the City who said last year he made £1m, he has £100,000 worth of shares in Citibank group that owns Egg, and he's absolutely outraged that he should be told he is any sort of credit risk.’
Despite the deluge of poor publicity, Egg maintains it has acted in a fair and appropriate fashion.
Chris Eagle, Commercial Manager at CreditChoices, welcomes the government intervention:
‘You spoke out and the government listened! Making a complaint is never a futile gesture, as evidenced here. With heavy hitters like Nigel Griffiths and the OFT on board, Egg could be in for a rough ride over the next few weeks.’
