Internet bank Egg is expanding left, right and centre, with share-dealing starting tomorrow and a range of other services planned, but almost two years after its launch, it still seems to be getting complaints about problems with its basic banking service.
Ann Broome opened an Egg savings account almost a year ago and says she now plans to take all her money out after a catalogue of problems.
Ms Broome, of St Andrews, Fife, opened a standard savings account with Egg, and shortly afterwards took up the internet-only option in order to take advantage of the higher interest rate. "That's when the problems started. We've had endless difficulties since then," she says.
Her main gripes concern Egg "losing" £3,000 and failing to transfer two other sums totalling £2,700 into her account. According to her Royal Bank of Scotland statement, the £3,000 had been collected by Egg on April 6, but her Egg statement made no mention of it being paid into her account. "To all intents and purposes the money had vanished into thin air," she says.
The £2,700, although appearing on the Egg statement as payments into the account on April 14 and 17, had, in fact, never been collected by Egg from her nominated NatWest account, where it was still sitting nearly two months later. She is still waiting for the interest on the £2,700, she says.
"Egg should provide its customers with more information and be more helpful and reliable when they encounter problems. In order to get to speak to someone who knows anything about anything it involves a major battle every time."
Egg admits that the £2,700 wasn't collected from the NatWest account, and says: "It was an admin error." As for the £3,000, a spokeswoman says it did not have all the details necessary to allocate this money to the right account, so it was put into a suspense account.
Egg has offered Ms Broome compensation to cover the interest she would have lost. It initially offered £20 but says she was "unhappy" with that so it has offered her a further £10. Ms Broome's experiences were not representative of its normal service, says the spokeswoman.
