News

Ryanair adds 2 per cent credit card fee

28 Nov 2012 by BusinessTraveller

Ryanair has introduced a new 2 per cent credit card fee on all bookings made after November 30, and has blamed the move on a recent OFT ruling.

The new charge is in addition to the £6 admin fee (per person per flight) which also applies to all bookings.

Customers paying by debit card, a German ELV transfer, or Ryanair’s Cash Passport will not be subjected to the processing fee, but will still pay the admin fee.

Customers were previously able to avoid the admin fee (which the carrier says covers costs associated by its website) by using the Ryanair Cash Passport Mastercard pre-paid card.

But from this Friday (November 30) even this form of payment will now attract the per person, per flight £6 charge, effectively removing the benefit of using this card (over a standard debit card).

The exception is those customers using the Ryanair Cash Passport in Ireland, Germany and Spain, where admin fees can be avoided until February 1, February 15, and March 21, 2013, respectively. 

Ryanair says it has been forced to make the changes “in order to comply with the UK Office of Fair Trading’s recent ruling on credit card fees”.

It means that a family of four paying for return flights with a credit card will now be subjected to a £48 admin fee, plus a 2 per cent credit card processing charge.

A statement on the OFT website said:

"We have not made any airline introduce new payment charges, increase their credit card charges, or scrap any discounts they wish to offer.

"We took action to make sure that debit card charges are included in the headline price and credit card charges are transparent and not sprung on shoppers towards the end of the booking process."

For more information visit ryanair.com.

Report by Mark Caswell

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