Card charges by travel firms

misty_optic

Why is is that I have to pay 2.5% to pay by credit card?

I'm in retail and I only pay a commission to the bank of 1.15% if a customer pays by card.

This seems like blatant profiteering by the travel firms (Thomson and Easyjet spring to mind). They must get a better deal with the banks than I can!

All well and good advising us to pay by card to protect our payment but it's like we're paying an insurance premium effectively if we do.

ASnyone else have a view on this?

wonderemxx

i work in travel and we have to charge 2.5% for every credit card transaction. Its something to do with the protection of the money versus the holiday cost and the amount the travel agent gets charged to use the credit card. One man paid a £750 credit card charge and didnt quibble!!

nomoneytoday

I would insist on an additional 2% discount or use a cashback card to offset it

exel1966

misty_optic wrote: »

Why is is that I have to pay 2.5% to pay by credit card?

I'm in retail and I only pay a commission to the bank of 1.15% if a customer pays by card.

This seems like blatant profiteering by the travel firms (Thomson and Easyjet spring to mind). They must get a better deal with the banks than I can!

All well and good advising us to pay by card to protect our payment but it's like we're paying an insurance premium effectively if we do.

ASnyone else have a view on this?

Retailers have differing negotiated rates with the VISA/Mastercard/AMEX ranging from 0.50% through to 2.75%. The bigger the retailer, the better the rate is likely to be. AMEX have always charged retailers more. Travel companies tend to have higher risk associated with them, therefore charges are quite often at the higher end of the scale, however there are a few who will mark these up,sometimes considerably and disproportionately, but that's business for you. Thers's nothing illegal about it, but morally ?
Larger retail companies already incorporate these charges into their pricing therefore they are invisible to the customer. Some smaller companies do, some do not. Obviously the retailer has to weigh up the possible loss of revenue of custom going elsewhere against whether to accept a card or not and whether to add an additional percentage.
The best bet is to negotiate whre possible with any company who try to add additional fee or alternatively walk away.

exel1966

wonderemxx wrote: »

i work in travel and we have to charge 2.5% for every credit card transaction. Its something to do with the protection of the money versus the holiday cost and the amount the travel agent gets charged to use the credit card. One man paid a £750 credit card charge and didnt quibble!!

A £750 charge !!! That would equate to a holiday of maybe £50-£100K.........long holiday was it !!

NickX

exel1966 wrote: »

A £750 charge !!! That would equate to a holiday of maybe £50-£100K.........long holiday was it !!

Maybe it was a wedding part of around 50-100 people and he was booking everyone in one go

p00hsticks

misty_optic wrote: »

I'm in retail and I only pay a commission to the bank of 1.15% if a customer pays by card.

The cost the credit card comany chargeds varies according to the type of transaction. I think face to face transactions with Chip and pin are the cheapest, but customer not present ones would be a bit more expensive and most expensive of all are the automated machines that you see at petrol statinos and the like. If I remember correctly the card company charges used to vary from just under 1% to around 3%. Plus on top of that the retailer need to pay an authorised credit card acquirer to actually process the the card transactions for them.

Unless the fees have come down a lot since I used to work in the business I'm really surprised that you pay so little.... I donlt think a retailer charging 2-3% fee would actually be making much of a profit on the deal, just covering their actual charges.

JohalaReewi

I booked my last holiday via a travel agent in the USA. Paid in USD (at $2 = £1) and there was no credit card surcharge so beloved by UK travel agents. It's just rip off Britain at work.

exel1966

JohalaReewi wrote: »

It's just rip off Britain at work.

Some it yes, but why ? Because the majority of the British public have accepted it and allowed it to continue. The US public just wouldn't stand for it as the consumer over there has a much more powerful voice. I think we're slowly catching on here, but we're still a long way behind in this respect.

But their is a flipside as free banking/credit cards in the US are not the norm. many charge annual fees. Though there are some cards/accounts available without charge they can be restictive compared to what we have.

Stuart_W

I've normally avoided any c/c surcharge on booking holidays by booking though my local co-op. I search for the best offer and then ring up my local branch quoting that offer, which they can usually match and then do not charge a c/c fee on top
(important to note this is with a branch of the Anglia Co-operative, booking with the Co-operative Travel call centre or another co-op society may incur charges, I'm only aware of Anglia not charging)

Anglia Co-op travel agents can be found here:
http://www.angliacooperative.co.uk/main_travel.asp
(as I've been able to do it all over the phone, it doesn't really matter if you're not local)

simongregson

If you're buying an expensive holiday in the current climate, just tell them that you won't buy the holiday unless they get rid of the charge, there are plenty of travel agents who will want the business.

Flights are more difficult, as often the agents don't make much or indeed anything on flight only sale, and of course it is difficult to avoid charges direct from airlines, although a good tip is to book using an american site, so for example american airlines sell british airways tickets without a card charge AFAIK.