Beat Ryanair, Easyjet, BMIBaby etc booking fees.

thehound

on ryanair's website under travel questions:


How can I pay for my flights?

Ryanair accept Visa and Mastercard credit cards and the following debit cards Switch, Visa Connect, Visa Debit Electron & Visa Delta for payment of your flights.
As a special offer to Visa Electron card holders, Ryanair, for a limited period only, will not apply a handling fee
Within Germany ONLY, we accept EURO ELV Direct Debit payments. ELV Direct Debits can only be accepted on www.ryanair.com or via Ryanair's German call centre if there is a minimum of 10 days prior to your flight departure.

duals

analyst wrote: »

Divoch, you may be in trouble here, and there could be a warning in this for all of you.

I just (5mins ago) rang the Co-op Bank to enquire about opening their 'Cashminder' account - the only one that, supposedly gives you a Visa Electron Card.


Was told that since early June, Electron Cards are no longer issued with that account and that, in fact, Visa have withdrawn the Electron card and he couldn't see any other bank issuing one now.

So, I wonder . . .

I tried to get an Electron card from Barclays in Feb but they just sent me (another) connect card. When I rang Barclays to complain they said they were no longer issuing Electron cards. At least I now have the choice of which card to pay my fees from.

jalousee

To beat the Ryanair credit card charges, I simply asked my bank, SMILE(Co operative online banking) to issue me an Electron card, which they did for no charge.

welshdeedee

duals wrote: »

I tried to get an Electron card from Barclays in Feb but they just sent me (another) connect card. When I rang Barclays to complain they said they were no longer issuing Electron cards. At least I now have the choice of which card to pay my fees from.

I too asked Barclays in June for an Electron card knowing about these charges and they were no help at all.

They told me the 'connect' card is the same as an 'electron' :mad: poor poor service.

This Travelex card looks great many thanks MSE's!!

monners1969

I have been amazed at the growing fees added on to the base price - not just booking fees - I am putting them together on a easy to read list on Facebook if people are interested the group is called Airline Baggage fees and is open to all users.

I'm going to add a link back to here as I didn't have the card charges down

mystic_trev

Moaners

If you don't like it, just use another Airline.

analyst_2

jalousee wrote: »

To beat the Ryanair credit card charges, I simply asked my bank, SMILE(Co operative online banking) to issue me an Electron card, which they did for no charge.

Ah! but WHEN did you ask, and would they do it now?

lufcgirl

The easiest thing to do is go to the Halifax website and open an Easycash account. It's free of charge to do and I had my card sent out within a week.

No other bank issues electron cards anymore other than Halifax and I think Abbey.

PolishBigSpender

analyst wrote: »

Was told that since early June, Electron Cards are no longer issued with that account and that, in fact, Visa have withdrawn the Electron card and he couldn't see any other bank issuing one now.

So, I wonder . . .

Considering that Visa Electron is the main debit and credit card of choice in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, I really can't see them withdrawing it anytime soon.

geoff_s---r

mystic_trev wrote: »

Moaners

If you don't like it, just use another Airline.

As a 'moaner', I disagree. I don't think consumers should keep quite, but act aggressively against any supplier smuggling extra costs onto advertised prices.

You say 'find another airline', but airlines like Ryanair have many monopoly routes & all airlines are now locked into a spiral of increasingly confused hidden charges, just to allow them to compete with the worst offenders. A few years ago an advertised travel price was simply the price everyone could expect to pay, trying to compare prices now gets increasingly murkier and complicated.

Sure, charges may be avoidable for the 10% prepared to jump through hoops. But if the trend continues to worsen & spread to other areas, no advertised price will be attainable. You'll need your Entropay account to pay free at Sainsbury, a Timbucto debit account to pay free at Tescos & a wad of Jersey fivers to get your cash accepted free at Waitrose.

A little moaning is good? If Germany can demand their suppliers give consumers a clear and level playing field, why can't we?