visa electron is great!

skintasusual

am booking some flights to see my boyfriends family

went on BMI website, they charge £4.95 extra when booking by credit card :eek:

they charge 50p when booking by debit card

it is FREEEEEEEE to book with visa electron :beer:

thats fantastic!!

and i thought having this card was going to cause problems - i've just saved at least 50p haha

crawley_girl

Excellent - but what is the rationale behind it?!

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls

skintasusual

no idea!

seems bizarre, but its there in print in the FAQs

i was just checking they took it before i go through the whole booking thing and then find they don't take it!

roswell

Personaly I like flights to be on credit card it gives you extra protection, i know because my mom once booked a flight and 3 days before she was due to fly they folded ... she never saw a penny and had to buy new tickets. At least with a credit card she would have been able to claim it back.

skintasusual

yeah i see where you're coming from

but my credit card is currently off limits due to my DMP
its got a zero balance so its not actually included, but i can't use it as i would be breaking the rules of the DMP!!

Alfie_E

crawley_girl wrote:

Excellent - but what is the rationale behind it?!

It’s one of the many ways airlines have of hiding their true charges. If there’s a surcharge for paying in certain ways, there has to be a way of paying that doesn’t attract the surcharge. If there’s no way of avoiding it, it’s a fundamental part of the main price, and they’d (eventually) get into trouble legally, if they didn’t declare it as such. The reason the Visa Electron card is the one that doesn’t attract the surcharge is because that’s the one that fewest payments are made with.

I’ve been told that, if you have a Visa Delta (full debit) card, but you “accidentally” choose Electron as the card type, you won’t get hit with a surcharge either. I believe the airlines have no way to check whether a Visa debit card is an Electron or Delta card.

pennylane99

it may be great for flights...but I found you cant book train tickets with Electron....grrr

skintasusual

thats also true....we normally get the train, but it is horrifically expensive xmas/new year time....

luckily my OH has a credit card for emergencies so we could use that i spose.

Flights this time tho, so i'll whip out me electron card :beer:

sandralovescats

I booked and paid for a hotel in Manchester, two weeks ago, when I went for an interview.

When I got there at 3pm I was told that I couldn't have the room until 5.30pm even though it stated 2.30pm on the contract.
Also, I booked it since it had two restaurants and, with being on my own, I didn't want to trail around Manchester. The restaurant was closed indefinitely due to them having no chef. So, I drove the 130 miles home.

I sent an email to hotels.com who said that if I could prove what I said, they would refund me in full - nearly £68. I got a confirmation email from the hotel and forwarded it to hotels.com who are refusing to refund and have offered a $30 discount off another hotel.

I contacted the co-op since I paid using my Visa Electron card - they cannot help me at all.

It now has me worried in case my card is used fraudently, in identity theft, or whatever, that I will not be covered. It says absolutely nothing about any of that in the Visa Electron booklet.

I contacted the Trading Standards Office today, by email, to see if they can get me a refund.