Egg have announced some changes to their Egg Money credit card which may be of interest to their customers. From 15th May the card will become the “Egg Money World MasterCard”, but more importantly the card will stop paying interest on positive balances.
The card has been paying 4% on positive balances for some time, a rate that now actually looks quite attractive, given that the Bank of England base rate has dropped so much over the past year and has been just 0.5% for the past couple of months (yep, a credit card paying its customers 8 times the BoE base rate, too good to be true eh?).
But from 24th April the rate paid on positive balances will drop to just 0.5% for a couple of weeks, until disappearing completely on 15th May.
The card will retain its 1% rate or cash back. Egg is justifying the removal of the positive balance interest because of the small number of customers with a positive balance – you’d think if the number was so small they could still use the feature to promote the card without it costing them much money, so there may be some other reason behind the withdrawal.
Also, within the email notifying customers of these changes, other benefits in the form of extra insurance were announced, but little was made of them, suggesting that they’re not actually providing much of a benefit:
“We’re adding some new insurances as standard, effective from 15 May 2009. These are all designed to offer extra protection on the things you buy”:
- Price promise – buy an item using your Egg Money card anywhere in the world and if you find it cheaper within 30 days, we’ll refund the difference.
- Extended warranty – use your card to buy any electrical item and get 12 months’ additional warranty after the manufacturer’s warranty expires.
- Purchase protection – buy items with your Egg Money card anywhere in the world and you’re covered against theft, loss or damage for 90 days after purchase.
- Event cover – book event tickets using your Egg Money card and you’re covered if you’re unable to attend.
Ah, Egg. I finally had to cancel my old Egg credit card that I used to use for stoozing cash balance transfers. I wonder if that’s still viable today – ages since I ran the numbers.