MSE News: Ryanair to charge for Visa Electron bookings

davidjohnson6

jmfarrell - you may also find that your card issuer charges you an extra fee to pay in a currency other than the one in which the card is denominated - Halifax hit me with an extra £1.50 each time.

A possible way round this that works occasionally, is to look for an outbound flight for 1p on a date earlier than the return - (London to Rodez) in your example and add that to your booking. The website will then treat this as a UK-originating booking and thus charge you in pounds rather than euros. Whether you actually show up for the London-Rodez flight is irrelevant - the return flight from Rodez will still be available for you to take

benjus

I've never understood how Ryanair decides which currency to bill in when the flights are in a different currency to the card. In the old days when the fee for debit cards was more manageable I still used to pay with my Nationwide Visa Debit card. If I bought a flight in EUR it would always convert it to GBP to charge the card (annoying, as the Nationwide card doesn't charge for paying in EUR). Then when I changed to a Visa Electron card, they would always charge EUR flights to the card in EUR, meaning that I got charged a transaction fee.

If I didn't know better I'd say they'd arranged it so that it uses the least beneficial option for the customer...

jmfarrell

benjus wrote: »

I've never understood how Ryanair decides which currency to bill in when the flights are in a different currency to the card.

I just tried going part-way through the Ryanair booking process as an experiment to answer my own question and thought others might be interested in the answer.

When you get to the Ryanair payment screen, just below where you enter credit card details, it says:

"If the currency of this transaction is different to the currency of the card statement then please click here to see the actual billing amount."

Clicking the link shows that, today, Ryanair are using an exchange rate of 0.9658010 EUR/GBP compared to today's wholesale rate of 0.9 according to the VISA website (couldn't find one for Mastercard) - a premium of just over 7%.

As a comparison, using one of the better EURO cards posted here would have given an exchange rate of 0.915 today (approx. wholesale rate + 1.75%).

So it looks like I'm in the market for both Euro and Sterling pre-paid matercards!

John

DCFC79

So has it been decided yet which pre paid card is best to buying ryanair flights,

davidjohnson6

DCFC - alas with many things in life, there is no all encompassing single *best*, there is only a best for you.

Neteller looks the ideal option for me - namely gives a much higher degree of flexibility in return for slightly higher charges. Others might like to look at the Virgin or Bread cards. Then again, those who transact in more than one curreny on a regular basis might like to look at the Caxton card. Those who intend to use the prepaid card as their main Mastercard, might like to look at the ICE card. Those who regularly fly with a combination of Ryanair and Wizzair might like to look at the Freedom card. Those who are about to buy a new mobile phone might like to look at the phones4u card. The only option I recommend against is (oddly enough) the prepaid Mastercard that Ryanair are offering in Ireland !

Only you know how you're gonna use the card !

DCFC79

davidjohnson6 wrote: »

DCFC - alas with many things in life, there is no all encompassing single *best*, there is only a best for you.

Neteller looks the ideal option for me - namely gives a much higher degree of flexibility in return for slightly higher charges. Others might like to look at the Virgin or Bread cards. Then again, those who transact in more than one curreny on a regular basis might like to look at the Caxton card. Those who intend to use the prepaid card as their main Mastercard, might like to look at the ICE card. Those who regularly fly with a combination of Ryanair and Wizzair might like to look at the Freedom card. Those who are about to buy a new mobile phone might like to look at the phones4u card. The only option I recommend against is (oddly enough) the prepaid Mastercard that Ryanair are offering in Ireland !

Only you know how you're gonna use the card !

there was alot of pages to read so thanks for the info, well it would be most likely used just for buying ryanair tickets,

nbaki82

What kind of higher charges are you talking about? Neteller has the least charges in comparison to the other prepaid cards. It's free to get, free to load, free to spend.

davidjohnson6 wrote: »

DCFC - alas with many things in life, there is no all encompassing single *best*, there is only a best for you.

Neteller looks the ideal option for me - namely gives a much higher degree of flexibility in return for slightly higher charges. Others might like to look at the Virgin or Bread cards. Then again, those who transact in more than one curreny on a regular basis might like to look at the Caxton card. Those who intend to use the prepaid card as their main Mastercard, might like to look at the ICE card. Those who regularly fly with a combination of Ryanair and Wizzair might like to look at the Freedom card. Those who are about to buy a new mobile phone might like to look at the phones4u card. The only option I recommend against is (oddly enough) the prepaid Mastercard that Ryanair are offering in Ireland !

Only you know how you're gonna use the card !

davidjohnson6

Neteller has a fee to load money from debit / credit cards. It also has a fee for ATM withdrawals

Jemma-T

Went to 'join' www.caxtonfxcard.com and was horrified that they want all my info from my passport ie they want to store it. That's after everything else (and beyond) I've given them that any company has ever asked for in the past.

I can't think of another piece of my personal ID I'd rather not give to a company based in the UK what about one in Switzerland, Jamaica or where they might be. And where that data is.

Our own government can't look after our data so it's up to us to look after it as much as possible.

Next.

alared

Has anyone applied for the ICE sterling traveler`s card yet, with the only charge being a 2% load fee but can be used nearly everywhere in the UK and how much info do ICE require from you?