Government to Ban Fees for Using Credit Cards

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Daily_Telegraph wrote:

Airlines, travel companies and retailers are to be banned from charging fees when people pay by credit or debit cards, ministers will announce today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8974365/Credit-card-fees-to-be-banned.html

Ryanair and Easyjet will not be happy. How long before the base fares increase to compensate?

stclair

They will just inflate something else to recoup the loss the bar stewards.

callum9999

I'm more happy about the abolition of foreign exchange fees on cards that was announced last week according to the article. Don't know how I missed that one!

Gromitt

They'll just hike the prices to compensate and we'll have to use cash back cards on everything to try and get back as close to the actual (pre-inflated) price as possible.

mo786uk

the main thign is now the fees will have to be in the advertised price -as opposed to being added after you have already gone through the checkout process which i htink is what most peopel want.

grizzly1911

When I had my first credit card retailers weren't allowed to "charge extra" for using a credit card.

It was of course inbuilt into the price of the item you wanted to purchase if someone wanted to offer you the ability to pay by credit card.

In those days CC companies charged a small percentage to the retailer that varied dependent on the type of transaction/commodity. Not sure how they charge these days now we have debit cards (charged at a set fee)and greater automation of transactions.

alanq

According to TV reports there will not be a ban on charging a fee for using a credit card. A supplier will be able to cover costs but not profit from someone using a credit card.

Pont

alanq wrote: »

According to TV reports there will not be a ban on charging a fee for using a credit card. A supplier will be able to cover costs but not profit from someone using a credit card.

Yes - my understanding too. As far as I'm aware, the cost to a company for credit card transactions is in the region of 20p. Therefore when Ryanair (and all the others) are adding £5 - £6 as a credit card charge this is totally unjustifiable.

chattychappy

I resent this kind of interference by government. I'm quite able to make my own purchasing decisions. I wonder how much taxpayer's money was wasted by do-gooding civil servants investigating all this.

mo786uk

^ rubbish - its a genuine consumer gripe.

funny thing is, people moan about interfereing government and the govt talk about LESS regulation - but whenever there is a consultation or discussion of any sort, the majority of suggetsions actually call for more rules and regulations.

chattychappy

mo786uk wrote: »

funny thing is, people moan about interfereing government and the govt talk about LESS regulation - but whenever there is a consultation or discussion of any sort, the majority of suggetsions actually call for more rules and regulations.

Yes, that is precisely the problem.