Surcharge on Holiday bookings when paying by CC

Irish_Lass_3 · 27 August 2004 at 7:42PM

Was wondering if anyone knows whether holiday or credit card companies are entitled to incur a surcharge when making a booking? I've recently booked a holiday for a considerable amount of money and the tour operator has informed me that each payment made using a credit card will incur a 1% charge. I have heard that this is illegal but want to make sure before confronting the tour operator.

Galstonian · 27 August 2004 at 7:44PM

Perfectly legal I'm afraid. You could pay by debit card.

normski_2 · 27 August 2004 at 8:09PM

Dear Irish Lass

Please see if you can check this out somewhere else but I think it goes something like this:

Pay for £100 (or maybe £101 to be safe) of the holiday on your Credit Card. You will then have the protection of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (Make sure you are the primary card holder). You should get back the total cost of your holiday if it goes pear shaped from the credit card company.

Pay the balance by the cheapest means possible.

I hope this helps.

Normski

Joe_Bloggs · 27 August 2004 at 8:24PM

@Irish Lass
It sounds as it is too late to do anything about it.
Do all of the above and you could try bargaining with them. You could say that you have seen the same deal with a more enlightened online travel agency. You could also say 'if the costs of paying by credit card are not better displayed then you will report them to the advertising standards authority'.

If they think that they have you over a barrel then they will try stuff.
J_B. (Not a very PC comment but I am not that speccy Romanian bloke.)

Finishrich · 27 August 2004 at 9:19PM

I've just booked a late deal with Direct Holidays and they charged 2% for a visa credit card. Used my nationwide card with 1% cash back and figured since they're part of My Travel would rather have the peace of mind that Section 75 provides than pay by debit card. But must admit I didn't know I still had that protection paying around £101 of the balance.

And I bet they don't pay anything like 2% to the bank to handle their credit card services, not with the value of the transactions they turnover >:(. If that is what they pay then it makes we wonder why they haven't negotiated a better rate than that ???

vansboy · 27 August 2004 at 10:13PM

Get a Thomas Cook card - MBNA - earn 1.5% as points towards your holiday!

They DON'Tmake a card surcharge - in fact you get an EXTRA discount!!

Plus they price match other travel agents, anyway!!

Worth checking out for next time!!

Don't use it for your out of UK shopping - thats for the Nationwide card!!

VB

Surcharge on Holiday bookings when paying by CC

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