Ryanair Debit card charge grumble

garethjv

I'm sure I'm not the first and I definitely won't be the last but can someone please explain how on earth Ryanair can get away with charging £5.00! per person per flight as a charge for using a Visa Delta debit card!? :mad: The only free way to pay appears to be a Visa Electron card which I do not have.

Here's the evidence:




Surely they are making a profit that is masquerading as a legitimate card fee.
How can that be legal?

Ok the flights are cheap but why can't they be honest about the actual charges?

Gareth

cifpower

There have been many threads on this and you can easily get a Visa Electron if you want one

udydudy

come on, theres no free lunch. atleast ryan air gives a free lunch but makes you work for one!!.. and also makes you fly light!!. Can you please try running a business with free or cheap fares!!! obviously they charge for extras which you can(but most will not) avoid with a bit of extra effort. e.g fly light if not pay baggage charges, pay by electron or pay card charges, check in online or pay for airport check in.

Remember THERE IS AN OPTION ATLEAST!!!!

Get yourself a halifax easy cash account which gives you a visa electron card!! or any of the other bank accounts which give you one.

Parisien

Lol..........lol.....lol................join the ranks of 1000s of whingers, grippers, and life long loosers...........who've droned on about this for the last 5 years.....


Oh sorry where you looking for some sympathy, understanding or support ?????

Simple......read the small print....check everything over before you buy.....

No need to thank me...............:)

Degenerate

udydudy wrote: »

come on, theres no free lunch. atleast ryan air gives a free lunch but makes you work for one!!.. and also makes you fly light!!. Can you please try running a business with free or cheap fares!!!

The original poster's point is completely valid. For them to pass on credit or debit card costs is fair enough, but the actual costs are something like 1% or less for a credit card, and a fixed fee typically less than 50p, for a debit card. This is per transaction, so that <50p fee for a debit card should be charged once, no matter how many tickets you buy.

garethjv

I always pay Ryanair flights by credit card as they are stupid enough to try ripping you off when paying with a debit card. I don't mind being charged for using a credit card (even though £5 per person may be a bit steep) but I'd like to hear their justifications for making the same charge for a debit card (which must cost them substantially less to process).

Ryanair must be one of the most dishonest companies around for trying to compensate for their discounted flights by inflating the transaction processing costs.

I did find this useful thread about Visa electron cards http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=205432 . Despite having 6 current accounts I only have maestro and visa delta debit cards. (£5 charge for maestro too!) Maybe one of my banks can provide me with a visa electron if I ask nicely!

Ok. Have now finished my application for the Halifax easy cash account! Thanks for that info!

I wouldn't mind but I only ever book Ryanair flights for other people! It's not easy for me to advise them of the actual flight cost until you get to the final paying screen and work out what extras you do or don't need! The CC cost was £4 until recently. I guess the rise is a consequence of the weakening pound (or at least that will be Ryanair's excuse).

exel1966

How often do you buy tickets with Ryanair ?

Surely It's them you should be asking for justification, not anyone here ?

Inactive

Look at their total cost, then decide if it is value for money or not.

If it isn't, use another airline..simple.

NickX

The OP is quite right.

Ryanair charging £5 per person per flight leg is not proportionate to the admin involved in processing Debit Card or Credit Card payments.

Yes the flights can be very cheap, but to charge extortionate admin fees like this could be deemed unlawfull and I believe it is only a matter of time before they are challenged on this. And quite rightly IMO.

TFD_2

If they do get challenged on it, they will just put the cost on somewhere else. Ryanair want to make a certain amount of money per flight, and they will get it from somewhere. It's like this government's tax policy, it's the hidden bits they think people don't notice.

Ryanair will be paying probably 15p to process a debit card - when they were asked about this on Watchdog a while back they suggested that what they charged for the fee was nothing to do with what it costs them!

garethjv

Hey I've no problem with O' Leary's business model whereby he makes his profit on the 'extras' and hence offers cheap (or even free!) flights! That's fantastic for us and very smart thinking. My bugbear is only with the pretence that Ryanair need to charge you £5 for each and every person per flight to cover some sort of admin costs.

If I were to book a ticket for a 2 leg return flight for 5 people with a visa debit card, Ryanair would claw back an extra £100 in so-called card administration costs, which would probably in reality only cost them 1 or 2 pounds. This is dishonest and should not be acceptable regardless of the cheap flights that he offers. Why he can't be upfront and add £5 to each ticket from the start is not clear.