There was outrage earlier this month after the Internet financial giant, Egg, announced that it was going to be withdrawing the credit card facilities of around 161,000 people. Egg had stated that it no longer felt that these customers were appropriate to extend credit to because their credit profiles had deteriorated since they originally opened their credit card accounts. However, some experts are concerned that the reasoning behind Egg’s decision is more profit related than caution related.

A recent poll was carried out amongst customers that had had their credit card facilities withdrawn, and this showed that 57% of customers had missed repayments on their credit card but that a further 43% had never missed a repayment and claimed to have good credit, fuelling concerns over why their credit card facilities had been withdrawn in the first place. There have been many complaints over Egg’s actions, with many believing that credit facilities have been taken from good payers who do not generate as much profit for Egg in terms of interest rate charges and penalty fees.

Following the decision one Egg official had stated: “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.”

However concerned MP, John McFall, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, stated: “Are we witnessing a situation where credit card companies are taking cards away from perfectly safe customers who pay their bill in full every month on the same date for years - and giving it to customers who are riskier? And if they are doing so, then their methods have to be called into question.”

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