Ryanair Credit card fees

don9999

I'm in two minds about raising this point - after all the flight costs are VERY cheap, even though you have to add taxes etc. on top.

I've not flown with Ryanair before.....eek! But have splashed out by taking my family (2 adults, 3 children) for a short weekend in Ireland, at a cost of 1p per person, per flight! We are leaving on Friday at a reasonable 6.20pm and returning on Sunday in the afternoon. We'll stay in a nice hotel for a couple of nights, spend Saturday morning/day looking around, and then the evening in the hotel pool and then a nice meal out.

Anyway......as experienced Ryanair travellers will know......you have to start adding taxes and fees.....

OK, well with taxes, the total rises to about £83. Still not too bad. A single piece of luggage, costs an additional £7 round-trip. I turned down the ridiculous £6.50 per person travel insurance and the £4 per person for online check-in and priority boarding (I still 'hope' that the 5 of us will be able to get seats together.....as I said I've never flown with Ryanair, so don't know how we get our seats).

However, the bit that really annoyed me was the payment fees. If I wanted to pay by credit card it would have cost £1.75 PER person, PER flight! A total of £17.50. I decided to go for a cheaper option of debit card at 70p per person, per flight, for a total of £7.

My question - we have seen in other financial areas, that customers can only be charged 'reasonable' fees, and need to be comparable with the actual cost of providing the service. eg. bank charges are now being questioned and banks cannot charge ridiculous amounts for simply sending out a letter relating to an over-drawn account. Likewise mortgage lenders need to demonstrate that they are charging redemption fees that reflect the true cost of redeeeming a mortgage.

Hence.....how can a supplier (eg Ryanair in this case) charge a fee 'per person, per flight' for a credit card payment? Surely the cost of processing a credit card payment (I accept there is some cost) is a one-off fee PER payment. Nothing to do with the breakdown of the payment, into constituent purchases (per person, per flight in the case of a flight booking)!

Without knowing for sure, I might assume that a credit card company might charge a supplier something like a 3% fee, perhaps with a minimum fee of £2 or something. Hence, in my case, where flight costs total about £90, Ryanair might be charged £2.70. So why are Ryanair trying to charge me £17.50?

How can they rationalise such a high charge for a SINGLE payment transaction? Presumably the remainder is pure profit for Ryanair.

As I said, I wasn't sure whether to raise this issue, but nevertheless would be interested in other peoples' views.....

Cheers,
Don

budgetflyer

In relation to your particular flights the CC fee was a lot, but its fixed . In my case , Ive just paid 2K for a holiday (put together by an independant) and the cc fee was £40 ie 2% so its swings and roundabouts.

Right, boarding tip.
Get to airport early, you really want to be boarding with first 90 to try and sit together.
If not-dont panic,board at the back, first lot mostly go to front.
If you cant get seats together, speak to cabin crew nicely. Often Ive seen them rearrange seating to accommodate families (just dont take this for granted and swagger on last-that just gets peoples backs up)
Often first few rows are empty at take off.Ask if you can sit there when the seatbelt light goes off. With children, in your case, the front row is no good, for them anyway.

If they are 11+ to be honest, its such a short flight I wouldnt even be that bothered

Andy_L

don9999 wrote:

My question - we have seen in other financial areas, that customers can only be charged 'reasonable' fees, and need to be comparable with the actual cost of providing the service. eg. bank charges are now being questioned and banks cannot charge ridiculous amounts for simply sending out a letter relating to an over-drawn account.

Not quite, PENALTY charges for breach of contract can only be related to costs incured. Charges for a service or product can be what ever they like, the market then decides if they are "reasonable" by people choosing the service or not.

It costs more to process a credit card transaction than a debit card. Ryanair charge more than it costs to encourage people to pay by debit card - seems to have worked.

No insurance? If your going to the Rebublic you might well want to reconsider. Almost certinaly better options than Ryanairs though.

don9999

Budgetflyer
Thanks for the boarding suggestions. I AM a little apprehensive about it. My children are 8, 4 and 2, so they really DO need to sit with us.

I was hoping that they would call up families with young children first......

Andy L
I appreciate both your comments, that credit cards cost more to process than debit cards, and that Ryanair may be trying to encourage people to pay by debit card. However, I don't think there is any rational explanation for charging a fee based on people/flights. My credit card charge would have been almost 20%, and my debit card charge is approx. 8%. Ludicrous, since Ryanair will only be charged 2 or 3%.

Oh and BTW, I DO have travel insurance. Annual family insurance for about £55. I just thought it extortionate to charge me £32.50 for the family for a 2-day trip.

Cheers,
Don

debsy42

When we flew with Ryanair it was literally every man for himself to get a seat so I hope you all end up together. I would hope most people would be kind/flexible enough to swap seats if need be....

bap98189

Ryanair will themselves be charged a fee for processing the credit card transaction. Normally this is a fixed sum plus a percentage of the total. Your flights were very cheap, so that percentage would be small, but the average price will be far higher. Rather than charge different amounts for each transaction, Ryanair have decided to put a fixed charge per person, which I imagine will be based on the average ticket price, which is probably £50 or more. The other option would be to have variable fees for this. Which option is fairer is open to debate.

As for boarding, you should be OK getting seats as Ryanair usually give priority to those boarding with young children.

alanrowell

bap98189 wrote:

Ryanair have decided to put a fixed charge per person

Ryanair charge per seat per flight - so a return flight gives 2 CC charges & booking for 2 returns gives 4CC charges

mistyarthur

Andy_L wrote:

No insurance? If your going to the Rebublic you might well want to reconsider. Almost certinaly better options than Ryanairs though.

Why? your EHIC card still works.

alanrowell

mistyarthur wrote:

Why? your EHIC card still works.

But insurance covers more than just immediate medical treatment.

dunx

I don't think that we're getting close to a justification of Ryanair's credit card charges here. For a transaction of £90 their credit card costs are the same whether the transaction covers one flight or 10, as in this case. It's simply profiteering, in my opinion. Like most of their so-called taxes and charges, it bears little relation to the actual cost of providing the service.

But of course we all know that this is where Ryanair makes their profit. The one penny flight price is entirely spurious and is a marketing device.

pin

I reckon Ryanair are charging way too much for their credit card fee, however they will claim it is justified. They are making money out of the fees over and above just covering their costs.

But saying that, I think you have a choice to fly with Ryanair, no one is forcing you to fly with them. Welcome to the world of market forces.