Egg credit card cancellation chaos

Banking giant Egg has found itself at the centre of consumer outrage after it announced a decision to cancel the credit cards of over 160,000 customers. Egg has decided that it is going to cancel the cards of customers whose credit rating has deteriorated since they signed up for their cards.

The cards of customers who have been affected will stop working in just over one month's time according to reports.

However, there has been outrage from customers that say that they have been affected by the decision despite the fact that they have good credit and their credit has not deteriorated since they opened their accounts.

The Financial Services Authority has now been asked to investigate the matter by a labour MP following the announcement. Former deputy leader of the House of Commons, Nigel Griffiths, has described the actions of Egg as unacceptable.

An Egg official stated that it no longer wanted to lend to those customers on the list, adding that this was "regardless of their current status".

Around 7% of Egg's customers have been affected by the decision after being classed as 'high risk' by the lender. Affected customers will no longer be able to spend on their cards once the deadline is over, although they can still make minimum repayments on the card.

An official from Egg stated: "We are sorry some customers are upset after receiving notification we are ending their credit card arrangement, but they are people we do not feel it is appropriate to lend any money to."

He added: "The decision was taken after an extensive one-off review of our credit card book following acquisition by Citigroup."

Tom Smith
13th February 2008

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