Ryanair DCC Rip-Off

peterbaker

Well Si67, I commisurate.

I do actually have a further safeguard because I am slightly less moneysaving than most on the smaller Ryanair fares ... my Prepaid Mastercard is almost always kept on a zero balance, so in another window I always load the Mastercard with something not more than what I think it should be when it is converted by Mastercard (not by Ryanair). A useful trick would be to take Ryanair's offered GBP amount and deduct exactly 3% and load that 97% GBP amount on to your card before clicking Purchase Now because Ryanair do not seem satisfied to overcharge by much less than that for their little ruse;)

If your card declines it because Ryanair wants more then at least you've had the chance to decide what happens next

Si67

The hoops people have to jump through eh! It all just seems so underhand.

I'll send a fax politely asking for a refund for the difference.

How long should I give them to respond before involving Mastercard and the OFT?

melb

yes it was peterbaker's thread i was referring to - but couldn't remember his name. reading through his kind post going through it all item by item reads like something out of "Yes Minister"! Make no wonder I came unstuck and i don't feel confident i would be able to do it correctly now!

SaveTheEuro

I would suggest you dispute the transaction with your card holder. You agreed a price (in euros) but a different sum was deducted (in sterling).

Some time ago I disputed a Ryanair transaction for this reason. My bank refunded the amount in full until it could get a response from Ryanair. That response never came. I only wanted fair play but ended up flying free.

Si67

Good point, but unfortunately FairFx charge a £10 "Administration Fee" for disputed transactions. They're not owned by Ryanair are they?

I'll give Ryanair 7 days to respond, then I'll get the OFT and Mastercard involved.

The trouble is; Ryanair are not exactly noted for the respect they exhibit towards their customers (well, anyone really). If I’m not careful I might end up without a flight at all! [FONT=&quot][/FONT]

peterbaker

Just re-tested my theory in full using my Neteller card

With Neteller you cannot top up by less than £15 but I wanted a round trip ticket in GBP plus an alternative return single leg in local currency.

The round trip was £20, and the single was quoted by Ryanair as converting to £9.16.

Usng my theory, I topped up by just £29 and bought the round trip flight first.

That left me with a Neteller balance of £9 exactly - not enough for Ryanair's shenanigans

Then I went back to Ryanair to search for the same single flight again and this time Ryanair quoted £9.08 :eek: ... almost ruined my cunning plan

I carefully entered my Neteller number and then sought out the hidden tick in the box and gleefully removed it, and gingerly clicked "Purchase Now".

Hey Presto! Booked! For £8.76 according to my instantaneous Neteller transaction report :cool:

So, whichever way you look at it, Ryanair recommended an option that would immediately cause me to be overcharged by at least 3.65% on this one. No ifs, no buts - simply put, Ryanair deliberately and routinely tried leading me down the garden path again

Can't complain too much about the flight prices, the reliability of their operation at Stansted versus other airlines/airports at the moment, but why O'Why does Michael O cause them to keep doing these very naughty things? :snow_laug ... snow laugh you know :mad:

Si67

O'Why does Michael O cause them to keep doing these very naughty things?

Because he's being allowed to get away with it!

I'm just amazed that a large company like this chooses to behave in this underhand way. They are very successful without a doubt, and that's even considering all the people who refuse to fly with them because of their dirty tricks and general lack of respect for their customers. Just imagine how successful they could be if people felt they could trust them!

Glad you didn't get tricked though. I still don't know why I was. I know I did everything right. Next time I'll do a Camtasia screen recording of my booking activity!

They haven't responded to my complaint, but I didn't really expect them to.

Oh, and I'm ditching FairFx. Does anyone know of any other prepaid Mastercards cards with decent rates who don't charge a tenner to lodge a dispute. Neteller any good?

jtelevision

Just paid for flights worth €75.98 and this was the final price they said they would charge my card. Received the itinerary and it states:

75.98 EUR Total Paid

FX rate : 0.90537 GBP
Total Paid in card holders currency : 68.79 GBP

This is about 6% off market mid-rates.

Surely, it's illegal to state they will charge you in Euros and then they charge you in Sterling?

I am well versed in Ryanair's sneaky tricks but there was absolutely nothing that said I would be charged in GBP

Lehman

I am still using Neteller for Ryanair. Haven't had any issues for almost a year now.

peterbaker

jtelevision, just to be sure you haven't found something different to our experience, are you saying you did not get the change from:

Total amount (Including Administration Fee) .................................................. ... EUR €€.€€
to
Total amount (Including Administration Fee) (GBP ££.££) More Information ............ EUR €€.€€

in the payment line before you clicked Purchase Now?

Or are you simply agreeing that neither of those lines is a proper warning that you will be charged in GBP if you take no action to avoid it?

Lehman, yes same here - no real problems with Neteller - but I have to be careful which cards I use for instant top-ups (which Neteller charge at 1.75%) to avoid "gambling transaction fees" e.g. M&S Visa charge £3 extra of their own for that reason.

I also noticed Neteller sent a general Security Notification - Protect yourself online email last week and took the opportunity in that email to give us some rather blandly reassuring paragraph about FSA regulation and segregated trust accounts but I wonder if that is probably fairly meaningless in practice (but as always I stand to be corrected):

The added assurance of FSA regulation
Being an FSA regulated company means that we always keep all of your money in segregated trust accounts. Learn more about our security measures and
FSA regulation.