Ryanair switches no-fee payment card from 1/11/2011

jamesbrownontheroad

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I've not seen it anywhere on the forum.

Ryanair has announced that from 1 November 2011, all bookings on Ryanair.com will accrue a £6 booking fee.

The only card to be exempted (and therefore the legal loophole that allows Ryanair to advertise their fares without including the "avoidable" administration fee) is a Ryanair / Travelex Cash Passport Prepaid Mastercard, which Ryanair will sell you for £6.

All other prepaid Mastercards (FairFX, Neteller, etc) will from 1 November accrue the £6 administration fee. This has, as you may know, happened before. In order to continue advertising fares without including the administration fee, Ryanair used to allow the relatively obscure Visa Electron card as a no-fee payment, before switching to the even more obscure Prepaid Mastercard. Now by limiting the no-fee transactions to a Prepaid Mastercard that they issue themselves, their obviously looking to get in on the profitable prepaid "credit" card market.

Press guff (source: http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-launches-branded-prepaid-mastercard) :

RYANAIR LAUNCHES BRANDED PREPAID MASTERCARD
13.09.11

UK CUSTOMERS CAN NOW SAVE EVEN MORE ON RYANAIR

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (12th Sept) announced that it will introduce the‘Ryanair Cash Passport’, a MasterCard prepaid card managed by Access Prepaid Worldwide, in the UK,from 4th October 2011. Ryanair’s £6 admin fee will not apply to UK bookings completed with Ryanair Cash Passport from 4th October onward. All UK bookings made with any other UK MasterCard prepaid card will attract Ryanair’s £6 admin fee from 1st November 2011 onwards.

The Ryanair Cash Passport will deliver the following benefits for cardholders:

· The card purchase fee of £6 will be reimbursed to Ryanair passengers since each cardholder will receive a £6 Ryanair travel voucher. There will be no admin fees on any Ryanair bookings.
· No transaction fees will be levied on cardholders for any payments made on the Ryanair.com website.
· As a special introductory offer for all Ryanair cardholders, there will be no transaction fees on any UK purchases until 31st March 2012.
· The Ryanair Cash Passport offers a convenient and secure way to carry money abroad, make purchases and make ATM withdrawals.
· Free card top-ups can be made at https://www.cashpassport.com/ryanair.

Just like a debit card, the Ryanair Cash Passport can also be used for ATM withdrawals, online and high-street purchases at more than 32 million locations worldwide (that display the Mastercard Acceptance Mark). The Ryanair Cash Passport will be rolled out in other European countries in the coming months.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“Only Ryanair delivers the lowest airfares and no fuel surcharges guaranteed. Now all UK passengers can access even more great savings with the ‘Ryanair Cash Passport’, which is available to UK passengers directly from Ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s £6 admin fee will not apply to any bookings made with ‘Ryanair Cash Passport’ and there are no transaction charges for using the card at UK merchants until 31st March 2012, so we recommend that UK passengers make the switch to ‘Ryanair Cash Passport’ as soon as possible to take advantage of the no fee offer.”

Access Prepaid Worldwide’s, Debra Janssen said:

“We are delighted to be working with Ryanair to develop this exciting ‘Ryanair Cash Passport’ prepaid product for their UK passengers, allowing them to ensure they are using a trusted and approved product that will deliver real savings every time they purchase a Ryanair flight.

apt

Hopefully the Which? super complaint on card charges will succeed and put an end to this Ryanair trickery.

bcl999

Well, it'll make little odds to me - I discovered last week that they they've dropped PIK-STN completely from the winter timetable and that's the only route I ever used.

hillwalker2004

Please see below for the Ryanair Cash Passport fees and limits.
Please note that all fees and limits are subject to variation, in accordance with the Ryanair Cash Passport Terms and Conditions. Please click here for more information.
Fees

GB£

Card fee* £6.00

Online load/reload fee* Free

Internet banking reload fee Free

ATM fee per withdrawal* £2.00

Purchase from merchant (e.g. shops and restaurants) abroad Free

Purchase from merchant (e.g. shops and restaurants) in the UK £0.50

Cash over the counter fee (e.g. at banks and bureaux de change) £4.00

Monthly inactivity fee debited from your Card if it has not been used for 6 months £2.50

Negative balance fee £10.00

Cash out fee through Card Services £6.00

Additional Card linked to the same funds £6.00

Limits

GB£

Maximum amount you can withdraw from ATMs in 24 hours** £500

Maximum amount that you can spend at merchants
(e.g. shops and restaurants) in 24 hours £3,000

Minimum amount you can load on your Card £150

Maximum load and maximum balance allowed on your Card at any one time £5,000

Maximum load over 12 months*** £18,000

Cash over the counter limit (e.g. at banks and bureaux de change) £150

Maximum number of Additional Cards linked to the same funds 1

* If you are paying with a MasterCard Credit Card a handling fee of 1.5% of the load value will be charged (min £4.00 max £15.00). If you are using another form of payment your card issuer may apply a cash advance fee.
** Some ATM operators may charge an additional withdrawal fee or set their own withdrawal limits.
*** The total amount you may load onto all prepaid cards issued to you by us during any twelve (12) month period.
Merchant transactions and ATM withdrawals in a currency other than the currency of the Card will be exchanged to the currency on the Card at an exchange rate determined by MasterCard® on the day the transaction is processed, increased by 5.75%.
Ryanair Cash Passport is issued by R. Raphael & Sons plc, pursuant to license by MasterCard International. MasterCard and the MasterCard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated.

SaveTheEuro

hillwalker2004 wrote: »

Merchant transactions and ATM withdrawals in a currency other than the currency of the Card will be exchanged to the currency on the Card at an exchange rate determined by MasterCard® on the day the transaction is processed, increased by 5.75%.

Wow. What a surcharge when you buy a flight to the UK, priced in euros.

Louisdf

For the occassional flyer, getting this card may not even be worth it. The minimum top up is a hefty £150, and this must be one of the first cards in the world which charges YOU to simply buy something.

But I can't see anything about this on the French/German sections of the site so I assume flights departing from outside of the UK will still accept prepaid mastercard payments for free?



However, Ryanair is not the first airline to do this, wizzair charges £5 per passenger per flight even if paying by bank transfer! The only free option is a wizzair credit card which is only available if you are a resident of Poland, Romania or Hungary. So about 90% of Europe has no choice whatsoever to pay this fee (unless you want to move to Poland of course!)

SaveTheEuro

Does anyone have a link to this card?

The link on the Ryanair press release doesn't seem to work.

hillwalker2004

No link - or more precisely there is a link but is doesnt work - it just redirects you to the normal cash passport site. I got the above from back door means...

So I'm guessing that you really have to use the card a hell of a lot to make it worthwhile...
£6 to apply for the card although you get a ryanair voucher for the same amount in return.
£0.50 if paying in sterling.
5.75% if paying in currency other than sterling
£6 to cash out any remaining funds

And not forgetting that a lot of banks will charge a 'cash advance' fee for topping up these cards...

Louisdf

hillwalker2004 wrote: »

No link - or more precisely there is a link but is doesnt work - it just redirects you to the normal cash passport site. I got the above from back door means...

So I'm guessing that you really have to use the card a hell of a lot to make it worthwhile...
£6 to apply for the card
£0.50 if paying in sterling
5.75% if paying in currency other than sterling
£6 to cash out any remaining funds

And not forgetting that a lot of banks will charge a 'cash advance' fee for topping up these cards...

Well to be fair you can top up by bank transfer, and I have never paid a fee to up my neteller £ prepaid card. But the 5.75% charge for paying in another currency is a rip off!

Louisdf

hillwalker2004 wrote: »

No link - or more precisely there is a link but is doesnt work - it just redirects you to the normal cash passport site. I got the above from back door means...

So I'm guessing that you really have to use the card a hell of a lot to make it worthwhile...
£6 to apply for the card although you get a ryanair voucher for the same amount in return.
£0.50 if paying in sterling.
5.75% if paying in currency other than sterling
£6 to cash out any remaining funds

And not forgetting that a lot of banks will charge a 'cash advance' fee for topping up these cards...

user guide here:
http://www.cashpassport.com/1/Global/Ryanair/UK_BK1538_CP_Ryanair_UGTC_V1_020811_F.pdf

hillwalker2004

sorry - I meant the 50p is for UK merchant transactions, not for topping up. As a 'special offer' this is waived for an introductory period!