It is disgusting and I agree OFT should have stepped in about these so called handling charges along time ago. Airlines seem to be able to get away with all sorts of tricks to rip us off.

Tour operators like First Choice can absorb the debit card payments or it would not surprise me if its built into the cost of the holiday but consumers do not see this. Smaller travel companies struggle to absorb any charges from the bank so this would have to be passed on to the consumer.

I have not yet come across any small agencies that have charged £8 which seems daylight robbery.

I totally agree with you - taking payment from a debit card costs the company next to nothing so charging £8 is ridiculous!

Of course it’s a revenue driver for these companies. It’s unavoidable, not disclosed at the beginning of the transaction, and is fairly sizeable. Most interestingly, it’s of course presented once the customer has found ‘a bargain’, which they’ll naturally be keen to keep rather than go off and do some more comparison shopping…

It’s the same pricing principle that is at work for a pint at a concert… no alternative suppliers are apparent and the buyer ‘wants it now’.

Yep, I’m in agreement too. But is it OK to charge for credit cards/amex/etc. so long as there is always the (free/no charge) option of paying by debit card?

I think the word you want is “exorbitant” not “extortionate.” I don’t think “extortionate” is a word. It’s a portmanteau of exorbitant and extortion.

The problem is that most of these companies don’t offer alternative methods of payment by check or cash. Although sending a check would cost a stamp. Paypal would be a nice option, but most places don’t accept it.

We hate having to pass on charges to customers, but unfortunatly the Banks, Credit Card companies charge us. They even have the cheek to charge us a monthly rental to have one of their machines to swipe their Customers cards.

Plus we have to buy the till rolls to fit in their machines. At present we absorb the 35p debit card charge, but there was talk of this charge going up by 150 to 200% in which case we would have no alternative but to pass charges on as well for debit cards. The Bank also charges us 67p for every £100.00 we pay in.

So of course we prefer our clients to pay by debit card.

It’s the Banks that make the charges and of course various companies will add on the administration costs involved with the transactions.

Easyjet/Ryanair do it so they can advertise £1 flights or free flights, which you later find are any thing but free once you have added taxes, baggage, fees etc… a con!!! £8.00?! If it cost that much, why dont all shops/providers charge this, exactly - its like the banks charging £30 for going over your limit. There is bound to be a back lash soon like there was on that.

Darren,

We do not charge for debit cards as it cost us almost the same as handling cash/cheque which we do not also charge for. As a travel agent we do not control the price, so we do not add in any charges, we just work our cost base around the money we earn. How ever in the case of credit cards this can be as much as 1/3 of a travel agents income so there are charges. Hopefully for Lee when TTA/Worldchoice merger goes though he will get our charges rather than his current charges.

Darren,

Sorry forgot my comment was offline :)….. I think companies have every right to pass on true costs. But to hide other costs in these charges is wrong.

I work in a bank and you are correct that it only costs companies a small amount of money for debit card transactions. Rememebr though that Ryanair are an Ireland based airline, so will deal within European currency and this culd lead to higher charges.

These airlines have a blatant disregard of the laws and it is time the government introduces new measures on these debit card fees

I think it is disgusting that these so called low cost airlines are adding any fee and surcharge that they can get away with. Will they let us pay by cheque or cash? No, so why are we force to pay these fees.

@ Paul Davey:

While Ryanair is in Ireland, they have a business presence and banking in the UK for the UK market. It’s much cheaper for them (and they get to keep more of those £8 this way…).

I also am not sure whether Paypal would be better for consumers - their charges to merchants are higher than the typical rate of a company would pay to Streamline et al (of course it’s much easier to get set up with Paypal so they get away with it).

As far as I know, debit card payments don’t cost us anything to process (except for part of the ‘overhead’ cost our Streamline account/terminal hire costs) but I may be wrong and we have something like the pence cost Lee mentions. Credit card payments cost us a lot as nearly all our tours include flights which we make very limited mark ups on i.e. they make £8 look like ‘lunch money’.

Currently, we don’t charge anything for either credit card or debit card payments (as part of our ‘no surcharges’ policy), though we do a little jig of relief when someone pays by debit card! However, as a tour operator we’ve had to absorb a lot of costs in the last 12 months, our bookings happen months or years in advance and we’ve had to absorb fuel surcharges, exchange rates etc so we may have to review this.

In regards to Ryan Air, they may have presence and banking facilities here but consumers have got as much comeback as if they were say a Spanish company. Without going into too much detail, a friend of mine was in a situation where the flight ended up diverted to another airport. She organised a taxi for herself and her family at quite a high cost to where they were supposed to be but realised she was lucky in that she spoke the local language and had the cash to get out of the situation. As she was shocked at how they left the passengers to fend for themselves late at night, including the elderly, she wanted to do something about it….and happens to be quite high up in a regulatory organisation..but after some digging, found out very little could be done.

Personally I do not fly Ryan Air as it’s a bit of a schlep to Stanstead from where I live and it’s rarely cheaper when I take everything into account . If you’re flying it, make sure the price is right (the overall price) and take into account your purchase is not protected. If your flights are over £100 then credit card protection comes into play (but that’s just for airline failure not for the sorts of other things go wrong), so you have to make the decision if the credit card surcharge is worth it.

Darren, did anyone come back to you about this?

Dee that is some comment. I could understand paying a credit card charge but debit card is completely different. I would like to see a response from OFT because they must be some rulings about this issue

in the united states, they do not have these charges.

THERE is no other name for this activity than a CONSUMER RIP OFF.

Having read with interest the many comments re: Debit card charges imposed by Ryanair I have just booked a flight for my wife and I.Ryanair have not only charged £8 for using my debit card but have the gall to charge a further £8 because 2 passengers were travelling.
This would mean if our two children had been with us we would have incurred £32 debit card charges. Corporate robbery or what?
I fully appreciate that operational costs have to be met ,but as in my case £16 against a cost of 35p.This is even worse than the mark up on a bottle of wine in a restaurant..
It is just an unacceptable way for them to increase their profits.
I await with interest any response from Consumer Direct.
Unfortunately we had to fly Ryanair as no other airline flew to the airport we wished to fly to.