Egg - DN - DCA - What 2 do?

[breakanegg]

:mad:Hi All,

 

I'm new to this so please bear with me.

 

I'm having considerable problems with Egg, sounds like many of you are the same. I'm not sure what to do. I think I need to take legal action but I don't know how. Also I work in England but my residential address is Scotland so don't know if law on small claims is different. Anyhow....

 

Had few problems with Egg, loads of charges that they've never refunded, all £16 each (I thought OFT said £12 was fair?). I've written them the template, "they're unfair, refund", sod off was the response.

 

I was out of work while this year and just started new job few weeks ago, trying hard to get back on my feet. Egg seemed to realise I was in trouble so they did the kind thing to help me out, they upped my APR

 

This caused a lot of problems. Interest was so high every month that I was making the minimum payments, on time but the interest was applied, which was MORE than minimum payment and taking account over the limit, every month they did this and every month they charged £16. I wrote to FOS who sent letter saying they'd deal with complaint and respond, that was August, heard nothing, clearly they're out the door with Egg complaints.

 

I wrote and disputed the APR increase and got the usual Bullsh1t response, i.e. sod off. They did say they'd up the credit limit so I stopped going over limit every month but I could not use the card. I've complied with that.

 

I received a DN dated 1st December 08. It said account was over limit and in arrears and I had until 29th December to make X payment or they'd pass to DCA.

 

This is where get's really scr£wed up. I made a payment, on 5th December in fact yet the sods went and passed account to a DCA for action anyway, BEFORE 29th December!!!!

 

I received letter from DLCollect (and a very unprofessional email with nothing but a phone number telling me to call them urgently regarding EGG). DLC say account has been passed to them for action and to contact them to arrange immediate payment of full amount, also says that action was passed to them on 11th December. They're letter was dated 15th December.

 

So I complied with the terms of the DN, even though I dispute it in first place yet they go and pass my acount to a DCA before they agreed to.

 

Does anyone have any advice?

 

I've written to DLC with a letter I found on the forum, something along lines of account is in dispute so sod off.

 

Also plan to write to Egg and tell them they didn't comply with their own DN but to be honest I'm so angry at the treatment by Egg, inflated APR, £100s in charges, legal action, adversely affecting my credit rating that I want to take action against them.

 

Any help much appreciated.

 

P.S. Don't know if a coincidence or if I am being paranoid. I work away from home so don't receive mail or statements sometimes for months, so I do all my finances online. For past month when logging into Egg, on front page it says interest charged is 'unavailable' and it will not let me look at ANY statements. I have no idea what activity has occured on the account for past few months because I cannot see statements. Is this a ploy to get me to call them? It's not my computer as I've tried at both work and home, it just won't let me see statements

[Mistermind]

The OFT pronounced on 5th April 2006 it would take action against credit cards which levied penalty charges above £12, but gave Egg the leeway of £16 on account of this cyber card claiming they have different overheads etc. The OFT clearly stated they did not consider £12 a fair charge, just that in the short term they have not got round to challenging it, and they are still examining the situation. The OFT maintains the law courts will decide if £12 is fair and lawful.

 

Egg always sends out a toughly worded first letter saying £16 is lawful and has the blessing of the OFT. It is not and has not. That letter can be refuted with the following proven CAG letter adapted to yourself:

 

03 weeks - 22 JAN 2008 - WINNING TEMPLATE LETTER - andrew_nwide - WON!! Egg Smashed £900

 

When convinced you know the ropes Egg will give in and refund in full because they have no wish to stand in court and face the above argument. This has been proven 101 times, no reason to think why it will not work for you:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/egg/53376-e-day-victory-over-5.html

 

The government pulled the cards into line 2 weeks ago, re raising interest rates on cardholders already in difficulties. This is effective from Jan 1, but retrospective claims WILL be handled by the FOS. This is a new initiative, and you will need to quote chapter and verse. As for stopping cardholders online access, this has been recently reported by others, so it looks like by design rather than by accident, a ploy to keep complainants in the dark and inhibit them.

 

This is your case to run as you see fit. It is up to you to read through the relevant threads and follow the proven paths, if you wish. Good luck.

 

January 1st - government deal on credit cards

Edited December 29, 2008 by Mistermind
typo

[breakanegg]

Thanks Mistermind

 

I've written to Egg about Interest Rate increases and charges, think what need to do is write with £5 cheque and ask for full list of charges because to be honest I don't know what they total. Had £16 charged a month since February and been customer for years so likely in £100s.

 

The ruling regarding interest rate increases is really exciting, about time credit card companies were stopped from doing this. They deliberately take advantage of folk in bad circumstances, they make it worse and make it difficult for you to pay the debt, which is all I want to do.

 

I still want to put in a claim regarding this default notice. The account wasn't overlimit and they did it without warning, PLUS they passed my details onto a DCA within notice period and when I complied with the terms of the DN.

 

DLC written another letter, this time threatening court action I wrote to them with the "account in dispute so sod off" letter but they seem to be ignoring it.

[breakanegg]

P.S. I must be really stupid; when I click on WINNING TEMPLATE LETTER there is nothing there and when I click on the link that says WON!! Egg Smashed £900 there is not letter in there :?

Is there an easy way to access these letters? Can't find a search facility anywhere on the forum, it's hard because it looks like you need to go through every single post and read all the replies etc. Will take me years to plough through all that.

 

Cheers.

[Mistermind]

Click WON!! Egg Smashed £900. All internet hyperlinks by convention are underlined. "Winning template letter" was put there to draw attention to what many seek.

 

Egg's owners the Citigroup are only alive today thanks to bailout using USA government (i.e. taxpayers') money, similarly RBS, Lloyds, HBOS etc remain alive today thanks to UK taxpayers. It makes no sense for bankers to be given a second chance then for taxpayers owing a few quid to be promptly evicted from house and home or hounded pillar to post when they are paying as much as they can.

 

It was the credit card companies who willingly lent money, it was the government who encouraged them by lowering interest rates. Now UK PLC is in hock up to their eyebrows -- the most heavily indebted country in the world.

[daveevans825]

Hi i am new to this aswell. I have been with egg about 5 years never been over limit or missed a payment but last year they saw fit to close my account, they are still charging interest is this allowed!!

[Mistermind]

P.S. I must be really stupid; when I click on WINNING TEMPLATE LETTER there is nothing there and when I click on the link that says WON!! Egg Smashed £900 there is not letter in there :?

 

 

WON!! Egg Smashed £900 - post number 4 in this thread.

[breakanegg]

Hi i am new to this aswell. I have been with egg about 5 years never been over limit or missed a payment but last year they saw fit to close my account, they are still charging interest is this allowed!!

 

Hmm, no idea about the legalities in terms of interest. Wonder if they invalidated your original terms by closing your account? I mean what T&Cs apply now?

 

I also remember reading elsewhere on these forums (don't know where now but search might uncover it) that Egg started closing accounts of non-spenders, suggesting they only wanted customers that couldn't afford to pay off the balance monthly.

 

I WAS paying off balance monthly but lost my job and had to rely on credit cards for few months or lose my family home. When they saw my balance increase and that I was just making minimum payments that's when they started hiking up interest rates. Went from 8.something to now over 30%. Egg are EEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVIIIIILLLLL

 

Sent off my letter with £10 cheque requesting a Subject Access Request. Confess I'm pretty clueless what to do after that. Guessing if I dispute the charges (which I do, currently they're penalising me double every month, one for over limit and one for late), then I need to fill out one of those N1 forms.

 

Bit of luck actually as they apparently can only be issued in England and although I'm from Scotland I'm currently residing in England with work, checked with moneyclaim.gov and they said I can file a claim as I have an address in England , sweet. Just need to pluck up the courage now, I'm a big chicken!

 

Wonder if Egg rely on most people being intimidated like me.

[breakanegg]

Hi peeps,

 

I have an Egg credit card which had numerous problems with over the years.

 

I was made redundant over a year ago and have been unemployed. I sent the letters requesting a payment arrangement and that they freeze interest and charges etc. I haven't had any replies.

 

I've also complained to the FoS, they haven't passed to an adjudicator yet!

 

Meantime I've CCA'd them and SAR'd them. The CCA doesn't look right to me but I've not a clue what to do next. I've looked at the letter templates but there's nowt there about the steps when believe a CCA is unenforceable.

 

I have a number of debts, money advisor at Local Trading Standards managed to get them to agree to £1 month until I find work which thank the heavens I think I has finally happened. Anyway, Egg didn't respond to the Moneyadvisor and so I haven't been paying them the £1 month.

 

Would someone be able to please help? Should I write to them saying I believe their CCA unenforceable because of x, y and z? I had a look at this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/188093-egg-credit-agreements-what.html#post2024413 and it gives some great information on why these agreements aren't likely to be enforceable but doesn't say what I should do if I think my agreement is the same.

 

Also, they have issued a number of Default Notices against me, I'm not 100% sure but I think, according this thread that they can't do that, so I was going to send them that letter.http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/letter-templates/131232-credit-reference-agencies-multiple.html

 

They've also put a number of debt collectors onto me, the most recent of which have started sending the usual threats. I'm about to write to them with the usual "it's disputed so get stuffed" letter.

 

Should I pay them £1 a month meantime or should I pay nowt whilst I'm disputing the CCA?

 

Many thanks in advance

Egg v Breakanegg CCA.pdf

[militantconsumer]

This agreement appears to be the same as the ones being challenged in the thread you mention. I believe there is a test case coming up very shortly, and this should determine whether such agreements can be enforced.

[Mozz1]

Should I pay them £1 a month meantime or should I pay nowt whilst I'm disputing the CCA?

 

Does anyone have a view on this? Keeping up a nominal payment of £1 while disputing an account? Is there any particular disadvantage?

 

The advantage I would guess is that one could say to the court that payments have not technically ceased?

[FightToTheEnd]

I wouldn't pay for 2 reasons:

 

1. If you dispute something why would you pay for it anyway? Gives an indication to the creditor that you're not determined/serious?

2. The Statue-barred clock will never start ticking....