Egg Money World MasterCard

Louise Bond comments on the launch of the Egg Money World MasterCard: "As fee paying credit cards go, £12 a year for the innovative new ‘packaged' style credit card from Egg is a bargain if you use the benefits.

With a 1% cash back facility, the fee can be recouped by spending just £100 per month on the card. However, for people that don't pay the balance off in full every month, this will not be the case as any cash back earned will be negated by the interest incurred.

"This card also offers a competitive life of balance rate of just 8.9%. This means consumers will pay just £145 interest on the average balance transfer of £1,846, £143 less than the interest incurred on a standard credit card with an average APR of 17.69%. As with all balance transfer deals, it's important to remember that the order of repayments will not work in your favour if you mix the two. We would never advise consumers to use one credit card for both balance transfers and purchases unless you fully understand the interest implications first.

"The benefits on the Egg Money MasterCard are great if you use them and they tie in well with the tension around the current financial climate. Just one word of warning, consumers shouldn't treat this as a substitute for any type of insurance as the benefits are very specific to stand alone items."