MSE News: Ryanair to charge for Visa Electron bookings

fluffygrue

Same here.. I booked two returns for Man - Dublin and didn't get charged to use my Entropay account (which is counted as Electron).

Basking

Have just received my FairFX ££sterling card for Ryanair usage via TopCashBack with £7.50 cashback on a £10 loaded free issue card ..seems hard to beat especially with great exchange rates when travelling no fees except atm withdrawal. Have had a euro card (also free with £7.50 cashback on Euro 10 deposit) with them for sometime and always load it in advance of travel to lock in a good exchange rate when available.

Lehman

The only problem with FairFx is that the card seems to be cross currency only, unless one uses pounds. I usually need a EUR denominated card, which I would load with EUR avoiding any exchange rate fee. I would then only use it to buy EUR priced items and of course book fee free Ryanair flights. I load my card via bank and iDEAL system (in Holland and Belgium) instantly. Neteller allows me to do this for free. I have recently discovered that I can send my sister money through Neteller only with 1% transfer costs. This is international transfer to Russia and would otherwise cost me around 6%.
I am glad though that there are other choices too. When only one company remains to provide the same service customers are at disadvantage. I hope more companies emerge to provide prepaid MC so that Neteller becomes even better.

matto

£7.50 cashbakc for a FairFX card (in Euros or dollars) via Quidco too.

I've opted for the FairFX Euro card as this doesn't appear to carry the 1.5% transaction cost although there is undoubtedly a currency conversion cost. However, that can be offset if you buy your RyanAir tickets in two parts and pay Euros for the return portion. All RyainAir's fees are the same Euro amount as sterling amount so there's a saving to be made there. Plus this card seems the cheapest for spending Euro money anyway so will probably use it for that as well.

melb

did you manage to combine getting the card free by using the link on this site and also getting the £7.50 via quidco? i couldn't see how to do it. thanks

matto

melb wrote: »

did you manage to combine getting the card free by using the link on this site and also getting the £7.50 via quidco? i couldn't see how to do it. thanks

Yes. It just kind of worked. I clicked on Martin's link first, then went into Quidco and clicked on the link in Quidco. You have to add minimum of 10 Euros to the card.

Lehman

Our friend Ryanair is all over the news with its card charges. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/04/ryanair-online-transaction-charges
I don't know why people complain. They can just get a prepaid master card and avoid charges.

malc77

The Neteller Net+ looks best for me. I got a card OK- it all went efficiently, and seems cheap or even free for many transactions.

dorsetjohn_3

gingerjoe wrote: »

:j YES IT IS........just booked return flight to see the family in Eire and did not get charge £10 ;-)

well its not today ....................... just cost me a £10 to use it

mjrclay

Please can someone confirm that the Neteller card really doesn't charge for spending e.g. buying Ryanair tickets or that there isn't a set up charge etc.. Sorry, if you've moved on a little with this but have spent some time already satisfying myself that the Caxton FX Global Traveller card was best for buying Ryanair tickets in the UK. I've just joined the forum and this is my first post so this maybe covering old ground.
I too like a previous poster noticed that FairFX wasn't the best, certainly not for my particular circumstances but which is recomended as the best prepaid card on Martin's site. For a family like mine of 4 when we spend typically around £500 to £600 every time we use Ryanair (3 times a year) the FairFX card at 1.5% everytime it's used is around £8 for every booking. Caxton FX Global Traveller Card (see correspondance with them below) just charges £1.50 every time you use it with no set up charges etc. This is certainly a much better option for my cicumstances. Obviously, for a single traveller getting cheap flights well under £150 then the FairFX has got to be the better card.
But now is seems the Neteller card is better as there's no spending charge at all... Certainly £1.50 didn't seem bad but free ...



Correspondance from Caxton this morning
Thank you for your enquiry into Caxton Cards.

Firstly, the card I would recommend for you since you are booking Ryanair flights quoted in Sterling, is the Caxton FX Global Traveller Card. When you use the Global Traveller Card, you will incur a flat fee of £1.50 per transaction. This means that a family of four booking return flights originating in the UK would pay £1.50 only. This charge is levied by Caxton FX not Ryanair.

You absolutely can apply for the card now even if you will not be using it until later this year. Once you have loaded your card, the funds are ready to be used within 2hours. These funds do not need to be used straight away and it is fine to leave them sitting in the account, as there are no charges and no dormancy fees. If at any stage you would like to transfer the left over funds back onto your debit card we can refund any amount over £10 back to your account, for a fee of £1.50.
I hope that answers all of your questions.
Thanks.