Ryanair and Electron Cards

munsterforever

i wonder if anyone can advise-i am minded to buy an electron travelcard from the post office in euro as sometimes i need to buy ryanair flights from ireland in euro and avoid the CC charges, but does anyone know if the ryanair site recognise this card as a purely euro based instrument and therefore charge it 1c only for say a 1c flight or does the site see it as a UK instrument and then convert themselves? as if they do the post office card is useless as there is transaction fees in that regard

i suppose the answer may lay with the post office...when i buy a euro card and pay in sterling with it-do the post office do the exchange there and then and from then on is this card purely recognised as a euro card by online retailers such as ryanair?

incidentally i have been booking ryanair flights in euro with my sterling credit card recently and have had rounded numbers on receipt of my UK statement-are ryanair making the exchange themselves into sterling and billing my credit card in sterling instead of sending my credit card company the bill in euro to exchange at the prevailing visa rates?

thanks everyone

munsterforever

ive just been on the telephone to my credit card who have confirmed that ryanair have indeed been converting my euro purchases online into sterling at their own rate before sending the invoice to my UK credit card-to give you an example-i recently booked an €80 flight which was billed to me at £67.49 which computes to a rate of 0.8438 when the spot rate on the day of billing was 0.7920 an unnaceptable mark-up of 6.55%

I have to write to head office with copies of my bank statements etc and complain-i asked the customer services rep how long this has been going on for, (ive booked over 100 flights this year with ryanir), and whether ryanair use the prevailing visa/mastercard rates, (which clearly they do not), and if they could desist from this practice-she wasnt able to answer...another letter

i would still be interested in posters views on the post office travelcard-apparently you can buy one in sterling too for all you UK based ryanair fliers

LesD

Did you not see this link when you booked?

"If the currency of this transaction is different to the currency of the card statement please 'click here' to view the actual billing amount."

munsterforever

thanks les-no i didnt notice that link-however i have just done a booking and it doesnt actually work! i disabled all my pop up blockers just in case but...nothing! moreover if it had worked and it displayed a figure i still would have thought that the figure displayed would be one made at prevailing exchange rates set by visa or mastercard...not by ryanair!

can you tell me les how long that this practice of ryanair making the exchange themselves has been going on for?

LesD

Haven't a clue. But it's been discussed on here before.

It's borderline DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) by default.

You could try contacting your card company and tell them you weren't given a choice of currency to pay in and could they reclaim from Ryanair!

But I don't hold out much hope of success.

ANYONE ELSE HAD SUCCESS GETTING RYANAIR TO CHARGE IN EUROS ON A STERLING CARD?

benjus

It certainly isn't a new thing - I first noticed it (probably about 18 months ago) because I was using my Nationwide debit card and I hoped to avoid any currency conversion charges.

munsterforever

ive just read your link and it sounds akin to back office dcc-i am going to write to ryanair as they did not offer me the option as i believe they are duty bound to do.

On a brighter note i telephoned the post office customer services in MK this morning and they clarified that their euro electron travelcard can be used to book ryanair flights when in euroland with no transaction costs by either them or the retailer as the travelcard is firmly based in euro upon activation

fifeken

There was a thread on here some time ago (maybe 1.5 to 2 years?) where a board member highlighted the DCC that Ryanair were doing and was fighting it on the grounds it was illegal as he (she) hadn't been given a choice. I never read how it ended up but perhaps he (she) can come back and enlighten us, or if anyone can find the thread maybe they could provide a link to it?

NFH

munsterforever wrote: »

ive just been on the telephone to my credit card who have confirmed that ryanair have indeed been converting my euro purchases online into sterling at their own rate before sending the invoice to my UK credit card-to give you an example-i recently booked an €80 flight which was billed to me at £67.49 which computes to a rate of 0.8438 when the spot rate on the day of billing was 0.7920 an unnaceptable mark-up of 6.55%

I have to write to head office with copies of my bank statements etc and complain-i asked the customer services rep how long this has been going on for, (ive booked over 100 flights this year with ryanir)

Don't write to Ryanair. Your credit card issuer is duty bound to sort this out for you. Given the number of transactions, I suggest you write to your card issuer, including in your letter a 3-column table, listing the transaction date, amount authorised, and amount charged. Make sure you prefix each amount with the relevant currency. Inform your card issuer in the letter that you are disputing all the transactions, as they are not the amounts that you authorised and are not the amounts that Ryanair displayed on their web site. Under the rules of Visa, MasterCard or Amex (as applicable), your card issuer will dispute these amounts with Ryanair and either credit you with the difference or credit you with the full amounts requiring Ryanair to resubmit the correct amounts.

MarkyMarkD

Your argument seems good, NFH, apart from the fact that as LesD says, they state in a page linked from the bookings page that they charge you in your card's own currency and not in Euros.

Having said that, Ryanair's written Ts & Cs refer throughout to "£x.xx (or local currency equivalent)" and don't define what "equivalent" means; they also don't refer to the currency issue therein at all.

So there is a reasonable chance of success with the card operator IMHO. It would certainly be worth having the debate.

NFH

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Your argument seems good, NFH, apart from the fact that as LesD says, they state in a page linked from the bookings page that they charge you in your card's own currency and not in Euros.

I've just been through a dummy booking and there's no link anywhere that mentions this. It also makes no mention of it in the T&Cs.