Ryanair - charged in Euros......

Dubs

Hi,

Having trimmed off every possible flight extra, I surrendered to the inevitable booking fee as I didn't have the spurious Ryanair cash passport. As I was booking a flight from Lanzarote & was charged in Euros I smugly used my Santander Zero credit card which would not add any handling fee/commission and give me the business exchange rate as of today. Or so I thought.

Even though the final amount I was being charged was 303.02 EUR my credit card is already showing a pending transaction for 258.67 GBP and upon checking my email confirmation Ryanair have converted to GBP and added a "foreign user" charge!

PAYMENT DETAILS
*******211.98 EUR Total Fare
********42.54 EUR Taxes, Fees & Charges
*********4.00 EUR Passenger Fee: EU 261 Levy
*********0.50 EUR Passenger Fee: ETS
********12.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Web Check in
********20.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Reserved Seating
********12.00 EUR Passenger Fee: Administration Fee
*******303.02 EUR Total Paid
FX rate : 0.85364 GBP
Total Paid in card holders currency : 258.67 GBP

The rate I'd have been charged by Santander would have converted to 241.70 GBP, a saving of £16.97

I checked the T's & C's and it says under Article 18:

"Passengers who pay for their flights with a credit card billed in a currency other than the currency of the country from which the flight departs will be charged in the currency of issue of the credit card, inclusive of a ‘foreign user’ charge but you can check the actual amount to be billed in the currency of your card prior to payment being made."

So I didn't read through this - my own fault. However, there was no conversion to GBP on the payment page as here:

"Payment
Your debit/credit card will be debited the following amount(s):
Total amount (Including Administration Fee) 303.02 EUR"

So the "actual amount to be billed in the currency of your card" was not displayed!

I would have used my cashback credit card to make this purchase if this information had been made clear.

Not happy :mad:

budgetflyer

After you typed in your card details a little statement will have appeared above advising you that Ryanair were giving you a guaranteed exchange rate to convert your purchase to Sterling. You would have to "click here" and uncheck a box to refuse their offer.

You may have missed it as it only appears AFTER you type your card details in

Dubs

Thanks but there was no option, just got a box that said order was processing & not to navigate away from the page. I regularly order from overseas and pay with paypal, opting to pay by credit card in local currency so was surprised not to be given the option.

melb

there's a bit that says "more information" and you have to click on it to be able to opt out of ryanair's conversion

Dubs

It seems I've missed it - shame it wasn't as prominently displayed as the popup boxes that don't go away easily trying to sell insurance & car hire.

It wasn't obvious and I feel tricked into handing over even more money. I wonder how many other people this has happened to?