Barclaycard refuses to say whether terms for existing Egg customers will be affected. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Egg credit card customers are being left in the dark about whether the terms of their accounts will change
if the proposed takeover by Barclaycard goes ahead.
Barclaycard
announced its intention to buy Egg's UK credit card assets – a
portfolio of 1.15m accounts and credit worth £2.3bn – but has refused to
say whether it plans any changes to the terms and conditions of
existing customers. Completion is subject to competition clearance and,
if granted, is expected to happen during the next few months.
Ordinary
green Egg cards offer special deals on purchases from hundreds of
retailers, which currently includes 4% cashback on purchases of iPads
and iPods, plus free engraving and shipping from Apple, £70 cashback on
home insurance from the RAC, and 25% on purchases at retailer Debenhams.
This is similar to the Barclaycard Freedom scheme.
But black Egg
Money cards, unlike Barclaycard, offer cashback of 1% on spending
between £500 and £20,000 a year up to a limit of £200 cashback a year.
However,
customers who want to see these deals continue should take note of
Barclaycard's handling of 1.7m UK credit card accounts which it bought
from the US credit card company Discover in 2008. Discover's UK
portfolio included 11 credit card brands, including Goldfish and Morgan
Stanley, and Barclaycard created four new accounts to make sure all
transferred customers received the same product benefits as before.
The
Goldfish name and heritage was maintained through a new Barclaycard
Goldfish card, and Barclaycard said customers have benefited from an
enhanced rewards programme.
At the time Amer Sajed, managing
director of UK Cards at Barclaycard, said: "The card portfolio we
acquired included one of the best-known rewards schemes in the UK. It is
one of the first things which comes to mind when you think of Goldfish,
and we wanted to take advantage of this heritage and build upon it to
create a range of products to meet the expectations of our new
customers."
However, shortly after the takeover the cashback
points scheme was reduced from 1% to 0.3% for Goldfish customers. The
scheme has since been changed again to provide vouchers for shops
including Halfords, Boots, Marks & Spencer and Argos. Cardholders
must earn 3,500 points to receive a £10 voucher, with one point earned
for every £1 spent on the card.
Some Barclaycard Goldfish
customers also belong to a straightforward cashback scheme, which pays
0.25% on the first £200 spent using the card, 0.35% above £200 to
£1,500, and 1% on amounts over £1,500. A spokesman for Barclaycard
believed these rates have not been changed since the Goldfish accounts
were taken over.
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