CreditCards Blog

Is Egg Money a credit card in terms of consumer rights - i.e. purchases on Egg Money are covered under the Consumer Credit Act?

I assume that this is the case since it's a Mastercard and you can get credit on it, but just wanted to confirm this as in some respects it's not quite a "normal" credit card.

Never mind, found the answer to my own question - Egg Money credit agreement states:

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 lays down certain requirements for your protection which should have been complied with when this agreement was made. If they were not, we cannot enforce the agreement without getting a court order.

The Act also gives you a number of rights:

1) You can settle this agreement at any time by giving notice in writing and paying off the amounts you owe under the agreement.

2) If you received unsatisfactory goods or services paid for under this agreement, apart from any bought with a cash loan, you may have a right to sue the supplier, us or both.

3) If the contract is not fulfilled, perhaps because the supplier has gone out of business, you may still be able to sue us.

With regard to 2) and 3), you may not enjoy this protection if spending your own money, ie funds that you have pre-loaded onto the card.

This is because no 'credit' has been provided.

you may not enjoy this protection if spending your own money

You will not. See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=14607139#post14607139

Thanks Paul, although that's not how I interpret the very uninformative reply you got from Egg. It seems to me that the question was never resolved. Wouldn't affect me right now in any case.

I found it most informative. They explicitly didn't say "yes you're covered under Section 75," they said "it depends."

Section 75 isn't something a credit card provider can choose whether or not to refund, therefore any 'cover' Egg do provide is at their whim and not Section 75.