MSE News: Ryanair's new card charges come into effect

tobiascurious

Have you seen their prices, like 8 euro per flight if you travel midweek

Amazing really even with a 6 euro charge

THENOX

I have been messing round a bit and found that (at least before pressing purchase now) when using Prepaid Mastercard to book inbound flight (from destination back to the UK) the system does not add the charge even if the billing address is set to UK. So having e.g. FairFX booking can be broken into two parts: UK-Abroad, Abroad-UK. I have no remedy for UK-Abroad but for Abroad-UK this will mean charge of: 1,5% + a tiny FX haircut e.g. on 50 pound ticket: 75p + say even a pound haircut = 1,75 vs 6pounds.

-I appreciate that the difference is not that great but it's much more about the principle: I hate Ryanair so much that I'd rather pay (even the same amount) to FairFX then to those jokers!:mad:

MarkBargain

eldaniel wrote: »

READ THIS GUYS:

We have got the Ryanair Cash passport card already. There is a Mastercard logo on it.
My wife was buying a ticket and she has chosen RYANAIR MASTERCARD. What she did not realise was that the 24 pounds charge was added for 2 ppl 2 ways!!! She did not realise that on the bottom of the drop down list was another card: "Ryanair Cash passport card"!!!!!! But transaction still went through and we have been charged!! This is disgrace. Do you think it is legal??
True is that Ryanair Cash passport card it is RYANAIR MASTERCARD. Is it not?? What is your view on that one?? Please let me know because I am furious. It is like living in a jungle without any laws.

Thanks,
Daniel

Very well put. It is blatently misleading and typical of Ryanair. An easy mistake to make that has cost you £24!

Can't we get one of those e-petitions going to pressure the government to ban debit card charges? This is all getting out of hand!

Toe-Jam

mynameisclare wrote: »

I don't understand why anyone gives such an awful company any business. I wouldn't fly with Ryanair if they paid me. How can paying for your ticket be considered some kind of optional extra service?

Show me another airline that flies from Ireland to London for £20 return and i'm on it !

2sides2everystory

MarkBargain you are right.

Ryanair are blinded by the thrill of their own barefacedness this time.

eldaniel has been ripped off no question. He has a Ryanair branded Mastercard and the Ryanair system should have been good enough to filter out data entry such as eldaniels which was perfectly correct as a customer, just didn't fit Ryanair's blinkered insider way of navigating a negligently or sneakily designed website.

I can see now almost exactly what Ryanair have done because we have checked it carefully from two countries (UK and one other) and basically they have declared war on UK consumers or indeed anyone* starting a trip (single or return) from UK who is not using Ryanair Cash Passport.

Starting a trip single or return from any other country you can still use any Mastercard Prepaid and avoid the Admin Fee. This is not even what their own Terms and Conditions state. Ryanair's Ts and Cs indicate that UK residents only will be prone to these charges. I can confirm that with the current iteration of their website (and they have been tweaking it constantly in the last day or so as evidenced by posts on this forum) that residents of other countries are treated no differently* to UK residents if they dare to book a trip single or return that starts from a UK departure point. It makes no difference which Ryanair default country page they use or what their IP address is, or which country in which their prepaid Mastercard is billed. They will either get charged the card Admin Fee or the Ryanair website will likely* falsely claim there has been an error with the Card Billing Address.

I liken their action to a private air force who has declared war on a country and instead of taking on the UK official government responders they are bombarding our cities and indeed the whole UK (or anyone* who dares start a trip from here) with Admin Fees.

The only antedote to this totally discriminatory bombardment of UK civilians and UK guests* trying to get home is to pay a minimum £150 in protection money to Ryanair upfront.

I am speechless and Michael O'Leary I am not smiling. You need to talk to your priest about what you have done. And if your lot can't see it, then pop along to St Pauls in London and they might have some advice for you.

If it is not like declaring war on a country's citizens and guests then it's like hijacking bookings on your own airline but only when they leave from UK and then promising safety to a favoured few passengers who have paid your minimum £150 protection money. All other* bookers on these trips have already had their wallets summarily raided when they board with glum faces.

Every other trip start point i.e. every other Ryanair departure country is relatively safe from daylight robbery in that Mastercard prepaid might still allow you an Admin Fee free booking. But book a trip either single or return starting in the UK and your wallet is definitely not safe.

Perhaps in this case anti-terror laws might be most effacaciously used and use of them even forgiven to stop this totally reprehensible commercial behaviour at the very earliest opportunity. A headline in Thursday's MSE News like "OFT & CAA stop Ryanair Mastercard hijack using anti-terror law" would bring my smile back pretty fast.

Tergat wrote: »

this is absurd

i live in dublin and yesterday used my euro pre-paid mastercard to book a one way from dublin-leeds.... no charges.

i need to now book coming back but this time one way with 3 passengers. even going through the ryanair ireland site to do this it straight away changes the currency to sterling and then wont let me complete the booking using my irish pre paid mastercard with my irish address. the payment page says it cant complete and that my address must match that of my card which it clearly does.

any ideas how to get around this as i dont fancy paying 3 sets of charges when im using my euro card and dont even live in the uk?

* One for Turgat maybe ... there is (currently) possibly one remaining but very obscure work around I think I have found for a non-UK resident to avoid the fee when booking a trip starting in the UK using a non-GBP Mastercard prepaid - that is if they forget moneysaving ideas in the FOREX conversion and let Ryanair do the conversion from GBP to the cardholders currency. On the cheaper flights the extra 3% or so compared to Mastercard's own conversion and the card issuer's fee may not be noticeable. On more expensive flights it will creep up towards the £6 (or £12 if return) you were trying to save in the first place :mad:

Although it doesn't help UK residents, I am sure we'd all be interested to hear of anyone else who manages to use the obscure workaround for non-UK residents that I seem to have found. So some UK residents might still be able to use a non-UK resident friend's card to strike back at this appalling nonsense. Spare a thought for the rest who have just started thinking about booking their one off hard earned 2012 summer holiday with the kids and haven't even caught up with these shenanigans yet and will get caught by them if we don't soon sort this out.

grubby23

What the hell....

After entering my 3D Secure Verification code I get this error message here:
Sorry...



We are unable to continue with your online Ryanair Cash Passport order at this time.
Thank you for choosing Ryanair Cash Passport.


Anyone an idea what is going on, ryanair makes it really difficult this time!

budgetflyer

For me, I think in the UK anyway, Ryanair may have done a RATNER. Together with a user unfriendly search facility and this Ryanair Cashpassport nonsense I can see their leisure bookings going into freefall.
As previously mentioned, Travel Republic seem to have binned Ryanair as a choice of airlines when booking thru their site. Others may follow as it is probably just too much hassle for a TA for a minimal if any profit on the extras to compliment the flight. Whether Ryanair approve or not, a lot of their business is booked through 3rd party booking sites.Many people and especially organisers of large groups ie stag/hen/ hobby/sports clubs etc just dont want the hassle of independant booking and therefor use travel agents.
If TA's now steer these people towards other airlines then Ryanair lose out.

richardw

budgetflyer wrote: »

For me, I think in the UK anyway, Ryanair may have done a RATNER.

I think you may well be right.

Using Visa Electron was easy, Master Card Pre-paid not so easy, Ryanair Cash passport a right pain in the neck, which may incentivise looking elsewhere.

trytosave

I'm a bit confused by the inactivity fee to be honest. The MSE article suggests that you won't get charged the inactivity fee after 6 months if you have a zero balance on the card, but I don't see that exception in the terms and conditions. As far as I can see, you will be charged the £2.50 every month until you use the card again, and on top you will incur the £10 negative balance charge. Is this right?

richardw

trytosave wrote: »

MSE article suggests that you won't get charged the inactivity fee after 6 months if you have a zero balance on the card, but I don't see that exception in the terms and conditions.

http://www.cashpassport.com/1/en/Rya...t/Fees-Limits/

implies that inactivity generates an 'inactivity fee' irrespective of the balance of the card.