I know I'm not being ripped off by Ryanair but...

lufcgirl

...I have a Visa Electron to book my flights with no debit card surcharge, however when I use it to book return flights from Dublin, meaning my price has to be in Euros, I get charged £1.50 on top by my bank everytime.

Is there anyway around this at all? Especially as the flights I'm booking are only 2 euro in total. I know it's not a lot, but I've just booked eight return trips so thats £12 in charges from my bank already!

And before anyone says it's not much, thats like a new DVD for me and I know it means my flights are only around £3.50 return in total, but I'd rather have a DVD than give it to Halifax!

dzug1

Buy return flights TO Dublin? If you are travelling that frequently it shouldn't be too difficult to arrange that they always (or nearly always) start at the UK end.

benjus

Sounds like good advice from dzug1... I don't think there are any Euro accounts in the UK with Electron cards (I think you can open Entropay accounts in Euros, but I have heard that such accounts won't be recognised as Visa Electron by Ryanair).

Maybe you could open an account in a country that uses the Euro - e.g. Cajamar in Spain has a free account with an Electron card. However, then you've got the problem of transferring funds to the account without being hit with bank charges. MBNA did (maybe still does) a gift card in Ireland which was a Visa Electron, but that had a few charges associated with it.

It all sounds like far too much hassle, anyway... if you can't use dzug1's suggestion I think you'll just have to live with it.

jonnyjackov

I have the same problem, my flights usually originate in Spain, so incurring the £1.50 charge each time. I always do what Dzug1 suggested when I can, though this is not always possible.

Sometimes it's cheaper to book a flight your not going to use, especially when I was booking a lot of 1p Dublin flights, but I don't really like doing that.

Of course my flex card has no such fee, but then I'd be hit with the dreaded Ryanair debit card fee:)

alanrowell

If you do it on a regular basis then book a single from Dublin to UK, then book UK to Dublin returns. You'll pay the £1.50 on the first Dublin to UK flight but not on any of the subsequent flights

benjus

jonnyjackov wrote: »

Of course my flex card has no such fee, but then I'd be hit with the dreaded Ryanair debit card fee:)

Except that in the days before I got my Electron card (when the fees were less steep) I always used my Flexaccount card. However, when the flight was priced in a currency other than GBP Ryanair always performed the currency conversion themselves (at whatever rate they saw fit) and charged me in GBP.

Or course, in the case of the Halifax Electron card, where it would probably be better for the customer to let Ryanair do the conversion - they don't do it... I wonder if that's deliberate