MSE News: Ryanair to charge for Visa Electron bookings

inflationbusting

Good, good, lads. I am going to go for the Entropay thing as well.

I had a question for anyone who has done it already: if I put my Entropay Visa Electron number in, will I be able to top it up using that? As I have a few funds in there that are gonna have not much use at the end of the month.

pompeyrich

inflationbusting wrote: »

Good, good, lads. I am going to go for the Entropay thing as well.

I had a question for anyone who has done it already: if I put my Entropay Visa Electron number in, will I be able to top it up using that? As I have a few funds in there that are gonna have not much use at the end of the month.

When your card arrives, you have to authenticate on their website, this just involves typing in the card nos. and expiry date. You then get the choice to transfer from your virtual card or a debit card. once you have transferred money from the virtual card it cannot be transferred back.

Just looked at mine and it says the plastic card has to be funded from the virtual card but if I click on the "fundind sources " button it lets me load either the virtual ot the plastic card !! confused, you will be !!

squidworth

Toe-Jam wrote: »

Get a Fair Fx card through www.quidco.com you'll get £7.50 for ordering one, the card is free, and there are no charges except £1 to use the atm

It works fine no charge on ryanair

Agreed, been a regular user of fairfx for a while and its been great... it was free via the link from this site, decent exchange rates, and the minimum load is only £20. I load it up online or via sms using my visa electon and the moneys normally there within the hour, no extra charges. if you want to pay for the flights in sterling theres a £1.50 charge per transaction, still cheaper then ryanairs charges. you can best get the sterling back via a bank machine (£1.50 charge for cash).

davidjohnson6

While I don't yet have a prepaid Mastercard of my own, research into the terms + conditions of the various providers throws up a number of things to think about. In particular, the cheapest card may not be right for you depending on how you will use the card.

A conventional bank account allows you to move funds in and out whenever you like. Assuming it's at one of the main High Street banks, you can move funds in and out using the faster payment service within a matter of minutes. Many of the prepaid Mastercard providers require a few business days for incoming funds to clear. As the "fly for a penny" Ryanair offers are often available for only a few days, this may mean one has to have funds sitting in the account already

Moving funds out of a normal bank account is free. Withdrawing surplus cash out of a prepaid Mastercard account via an ATM is not free. Furthermore, there may be a limit to the amount of funds that can be withdrawn at any one time. Thus it makes sense to avoid having too much sitting in your Mastercard account if you're not sure when you will need the money

Some prepaid card providers have a minimum amount of funds that you can pay into the account at any one time. If you intend to use your prepaid card for things like the weekly food shop, that's fine. If (like me) you're interested in a prepaid card solely to avoid the Ryanair fees, it's not so good

Without providing your passport details, many prepaid cards are of limited use. Giving out your passport details should happen only when you *really* trust the company. Some companies make more effort on security against hackers than others !

For the above reasons, I'd say that while the ICE card may well be cheapest, when considered for the purposes solely of avoiding Ryanair fees, the T&Cs do not seem suitable.

I'm pondering the merits of either Neteller, or the Virgin card instead.

Jemma-T

Neteller https://www.neteller.com looks interesting then, but read all the T&Cs like this:

If you do not use your NETELLER account for 14 months you will be charged an Inactive Administrative Fee up to $30 USD. This fee will be charged annually until you use your account or the account balance reaches zero. Account use is defined as any deposit, transfer to or from a merchant, withdrawal or Net+ Card purchase.

No problem for most but it you'd need to watch for changes to this condition.

Any Neteller users out there? Can you tell us more about your experiences please?

apt

There's an article on Ryanair and prepaid cards in today's Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/dec/05/ryanair-electron-passenger-fees

As someone who would only consider Ryanair occasionally and only for very cheap flights, I've decided the fairfx card with £7.50 cashback is the best option. In effect the first 4 bookings would cost you nothing and you only have to load £20 on the card. I can also use it as a back-up card to Nationwide when in the Euro zone.

nbaki82

[QUOTE:



No problem for most but it you'd need to watch for changes to this condition.

Any Neteller users out there? Can you tell us more about your experiences please?[/QUOTE]

I have Neteller and think it's flawless. Today the Ryanair trick is on front pages again how Mastercard will be the only fee-less way.

Inactivity fee after 14 months is pretty generous give that most card would charge you if you don't use it for 1 month. You can load money to it free and can use if even for groceries, doesn't have to be Ryanair only.

JonPhred

nbaki82 wrote: »

BTW, whoever wants to sign up for this free prepaid MasterCard with Neteller, pls contact me and I will give you a referral, this way both you and me earn EUR16, not bad.

Their TnCs actually say something rather different:
"Your bonus will be equal to 20% of your friend’s first deposit amount (up to €16)
Your friend’s bonus will be equal to 10% of their first deposit amount (up to €8)":
http://public.neteller.com/content/global/rewards_raf.htm


I'm not keen on following a recommendation from someone who provides info of dubious quality and less keen on being the means of them being rewarded for that.

nbaki82

Their TnCs actually say something rather different:
"Your bonus will be equal to 20% of your friend’s first deposit amount (up to €16)
Your friend’s bonus will be equal to 10% of their first deposit amount (up to €8)":

I'm not keen on following a recommendation from someone who provides info of dubious quality and less keen on being the means of them being rewarded for that.

You don't have to. You can sign up yourself and get nothing, whereas, if you sign up with somebody's referral you get EUR 8. In the end of the day you will have to sign up for Neteller as this is the best option out there with free card and free point of purchase spending.

alared

JonPhred wrote: »

I'm not keen on following a recommendation from someone who provides info of dubious quality and less keen on being the means of them being rewarded for that.

nbaki82 joined the forums only yesterday and has only posted on this subect about 12 times.
Up to then probably no one had heard of Neteller.com.

It now appears he/she has a vested interest and therefore this is posted on the wrong board.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=42

Board guides take note (if there are any)