Credit Cards and Travel Agents

mudfeet

Please can someone explain to me why are Travel Agents and Holiday Companies allowed to charge a transaction fee on holiday bookings , this can be quite expensive at times, if the same fee's applied in Tesco's or Asda I am sure they would be boycotted

BoltonMinx

The same fees are applied to all retailers but Tesco and Asda and several other companies absorb the processing fee into their margin and don't pass it on to customers.

lisyloo

Please can someone explain to me why are Travel Agents and Holiday Companies allowed to charge a transaction fee on holiday bookings

All companies are allowed to do it.
Some choose to do it, some don't.

From the holiday companies perspective they want headline prices as low as possible and in some ways it's fairer because the costs of processing cards is not passed onto all customers.

In other businesses (like supermarkets) they don't want to add on charges but spread it across the business.

So my answer is that the business model for selling baked beans is different from selling holidays.

However be aware that ultimately you are always paying in the same way that you have to pay for the costs of freezers, shelves and buildings in a supermarket. The cost has to be passed on somewhere. It's just that some business chose to add it on directly and others hide it.
I personally think it's probably fairer to add it on directly although like you I don't like it.

I have just booked my holidays on my Capital one platinum card with 4% cashback.
So even though there is a 2% fee, I am still quids in.
So that's one way round it.