Egg stands its ground following meeting over credit cards

Internet financial giant Egg is standing its ground over the credit card cancellation row despite concerns voiced by Labour MP, Nigel Griffiths, at a recent meeting with the Chief Executive of Egg, Ian Kerr.

Egg announced a few weeks ago that following a review of over two million credit card accounts around 161,000 customers would have their cards cancelled because they were classed as high risk.

This caused outrage with many of the affected customers stating that they had good credit and had never missed a repayment.

Egg officials have since been accused of cancelling many of these cards because the accountholders were good payers and did not generate enough profit for Egg, an allegation that Egg has denied.

Prior to the meeting Mr Griffiths, who is also the former consumer affairs minister, stated: “Egg has got a lot of explaining to do. 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.”

He also added: “Egg’s job now is to prove they have an honest intention in this. They made a mistake, we need an apology and compensation for wasted credit agency checks.”

However, following the meeting Egg has said: “The review was based upon a large number of variables and studied the level of risk inherent in groups of customers, rather then every individual. So while some customers in that group may be up to date with their payments and have a good record with credit reference agencies and so on, the probability of them becoming a higher-risk customer in the future is higher than we wish to accept.”