Debt- laden customers banned from using their Egg credit card
Egg is banning 160,000 debt-ridden customers from using their credit cards.
Other credit card companies are expected to follow Eggs lead as the global credit crunch tightens its squeeze on the battered banking industry.
If they do follow suit, it could lead to a retail crisis because credit card spending has fuelled the “spend, not save” shopping culture. Egg said its move affects seven per cent of its two million credit card customers. They are being targeted because they have a “higher than acceptable risk profile”, the company said. This typically means they are spending over their credit limit or failing to make even minimum repayments every month.
A spokesman for Egg said “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.”
