£5.99 charge to use my credit card, is this normal>?

trinidadone

hey all, after shopping for my car insurance I settled with Admiral as the best quote. I wanted to pay in full on my credit card, and was told I would be charged a one off payment of £5.99, is this normal practice now? I assumed credit card charges are met by the dealer, looks like the costs are now being placed onto the customer.

With a little moving moving, I opted to use my debit card which has no cost to use, MMMMMMMMMMMMM any thoughts???

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

I wouldn't say that it is normal but certainly not uncommon.

nzseries1

Soon, they'll go the way of EasyJet / Ryan Air, and only allow free payment with one particular obscure credit card!

Seriously though, it is common, I had that with my contents insurance, and also get it with hotels, flights, national lottery - more and more places are charging to use credit cards.

My local newsagent levies a charge on credit cards too, and not debit cards. And, I can't even pay at Aldi with a CC.

iceage3

pay by credit card
and sky charge 50p extra
tax disc £2.50 extra

i am with churchill and just moved house they charged me £15 for admin charges to change address

ripoff or what

trinidadone

I think it is shocking, I doubt it costs Admiral £5.99 to take a credit card payment

Kyresa

It's likely the "if you pay by credit card we will charge a 2% fee on top for doing so".

it's getting more and more common to be honest.

Mikhail

Depends, on one hand I can understand local retailers and small shops that are trying to re-inverse their expenses of accepting CCs or DCs, but isn’t it all went too far with unreasonable (hidden) charges like easyJet and Ryanair have? I personally would stop using ‘naughty’ local retailers and small shops as they know much better if they will increase amounts of cash it will increase robbery risks and encashment collections by a bank will cost considerably more! So I consider it as a form of stealing!

p00hsticks

trinidadone wrote: »

I think it is shocking, I doubt it costs Admiral £5.99 to take a credit card payment

It probably will - it depends on the exact type of transaction, but the fee to the credit card company is typically in the range of 1-3% of the transaction amount, ....

Degenerate

Mikhail wrote: »

Depends, on one hand I can understand local retailers and small shops that are trying to re-inverse their expenses of accepting CCs or DCs, but isn’t it all went too far with unreasonable (hidden) charges like easyJet and Ryanair have?

The Easyjet and Ryanair charges bear no relation to the cost of accepting the cards - they are merely cover for lying about the real price of the ticket, made legal by taking a loss from those few people who do possess the obscure payment method they choose to be the free one.

As for the Admiral charge, it depends on the premium - it could actually be fairly close to the real cost of acceptance.

nzseries1

Just today, there's a news story on this site on this very thing:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2011/02/which-launches-super-complaint-to-ban-excessive-card-fees

lisyloo

My view is that it depends.

Everyone knocks Ryanair and I assure you they are my least favourite company.
BUT they do strip out these charges from their VERY LOW price because this is what YOU (the public) asked for.
We want very cheap headline prices.
If you force then not to add on these charges (through legislation) then the costs will simply have to be included in the initial pricing.

Provided it's clear I don't have a particualr preference.
I rpobably prefer it the way they do it now because then at least you have a choice as to whether to incurr the charge or not.

BUT be aware these costs need to be paid for one way or another.
Whether they are included and slplit across everyones flight ticket or insurance or whether they are added on later.