Egg Adds a Balance Transfer Charge

Egg is the latest credit card issuer to introduce a charge on balance transfers. The Internet bank will go down the same road as Barclaycard and MBNA and charge a fee of 2%, for to balance transfer your debt onto Egg’s 0% credit cards.

Egg has a current level of 3.6 billion on outstanding balances and are one of the country’s biggest credit card issuers, with 6% of the overall credit card market and by following in the actions of some of the other major players in the credit card world, it is being seen as the end of the free exchange from one credit card to the other.

It is now expected, that most of the other credit card issuers will follow suit and the 0% deals that we have been spoiled with for the last few years are going to be a thing of the past. Most are now expected to push through the fees onto they’re credit cards as well, in the not to distant future.

It has all came down to this for the simple reason that the credit card companies can no longer afford to sustains the loss of almost a billion pounds a year in interest payments, that we have been saving by switching from one 0% credit card to another that has the facility.

The hope of Egg is that it wont affect the chances of selling they’re cards to any potential new customers and have stated that the reasoning behind the move is to try and curb the ever rising amount of “Rate Tarts” and customers who were transferring the limit on the credit cards into savings accounts, gaining the interest as profit and then paying the credit card back, before the end of the 0% free period.

The days of the customer getting the better of the card issuers, is on the way out as the credit card companies try and make customers show more loyalty, when they buy into the credit card. Though it was they’re own search for custom that resulted in the situation that they find themselves in and the fact that they underestimated the customers knowledge of credit cards now. Though if the credit card company’s showed a little more loyalty to they’re customers in the first place then many may still be with them.