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Ryanair is now charging a £5 handling charge per person per flight for credit and debit card payments. This is pretty steep, meaning if you book a return flight for two passengers you’ll pay a whopping £20 in card payment fees.
However if you pay for your Ryanair flights by Visa Electron there is no card handling fee. The basic current account Halifax EasyCash account offers a Visa Electron card. The Ryanair website states that this offer to holders of Visa Electron cards is for a limited time only but it’s been on the go for years.
If the total transaction cost is £100 or more it may be a wise move to pay by credit card to ensure that if the airline goes bust, the credit card company will refund you.
I’d advise you to apply for an account which offers a Visa Electron card as soon as possible so you’re ready to avoid the £5 Ryanair debit and credit card payment fees next time you book your Ryanair flights.
Tags: Ryanair, ryanair card fees, ryanair card handling charges, ryanair card handling fees, visa electron
[...] to Europe a la Carte. The Saturday Guardian Money picked up on my recent article about how to avoid Ryanair’s tripling of debit card fees by paying fee free with a Visa Electron [...]
[...] from Edinburgh to Alicante with Ryanair costing £52 per person, paying with Visa Electron to avoid card fees of £4 per flight, using online check in and only taking maximum permitted 10 kgs of hand [...]
I have just booked a flight with Ryanair and have been charged a £19 debit card fee. Have they made a mistake or is that the new charge?
Margaret, thanks for alerting me to this, I checked the Ryanair site and the Ryanair card handling fee has now increased from £4 per person per flight to £4.75 per person.
[...] debit or credit card. All the more reason to follow my advice, featured by Guardian Money and get a Visa Electron card meaning that you can, at least for the moment, avoid Ryanair’s card handling [...]
PLEASE CAN YOU SEND ME DETAILS REGARDING THE RYAN AIR VISA ELECTRON CARD WITH NO CHARGES WHEN BOOKING A FLIGHT
P Donaldson – A Visa Electron is avaiable from some banks, you can find links to the Halifax and the Coop in the post. If you use the Electron to pay for flights on Ryanair site there will be no card handling charges.
re Booking ryanair flights with Visa Electron.
Does one get the same cover with Visa Electron as with a Visa Credit Card i.e. if a Company goes out of business does one have the same cover.
Mary, I’m not sure if the protection offered by Visa Electron is the same as with a Visa credit card. I’ve usually paid less than £100 for my Ryanair flights so it’s never been that relevant as credit card coverage is only for purchases over £100.
All,
I was charged a whopping £10, per person (4) for a flight to Cork in May, for use of my debit card. That’s £40!!!!
What’s worse – they did not warn me of this anywhere in the ‘Final Amount to Pay’.
On a dummy-run purchase (so I could try and trace my steps) the only mention is within links towards the end, which only state a few pounds (nothing re the £10)????
Dan – yes you do you to be vigilant to pick upon the fact that you’ll be charged per person per flight rather than a set fee per transaction. I hope that you have a Visa Electron card now if you plan on booking any more Ryanair flights, it will save you quite a bit of money.
Yes ! same things happened to a flight to Paris . We were charged 10 pds handling fee per person = 40 pds !! Only found out when I printed my receipt after the transaction. But this was not showing as a total amount when I accepted to pay. Is this at all legal ?
Veronique, the web page can be confusing. You should also print out your payment acceptance page, to make sure you have a case if you are not charged what you’ve agreed. I can only repeat my advice to pay by Visa Electron to avoid such fees.
i contacted my bank, barclays and asked them if i could apply for an electron card. they asked me straight away if it was to avoid ryanair charges. i told them it was and they advised me that they had had lots of requests from customers but had subsequently found out that the only electron card that can be used to avoid charges is the one issued by the co-op bank. is this true?
i neish – I have a Visa Electron with the
Halifax which I’ve had for a few months and I just checked the link to the Halifax Easy Cash account in the blog post.
As far as I am aware there are no Ryanair chargers when paying with any Visa Electron card, regardless of the issuing bank.
i have just booked with ryanair.. 17/4/09 and was charged £10.00 in card charges..they are now charging £30.00 per person baggage handling which seems to go up every time i book a flight..are the baggage handlers getting a pay rise every couple of months..i dont think so..where does this exessive charge go and why is it so high
doug – thanks for your comment. Why don’t you consider applying for a Visa Electron to at least avoid the card fees? Yes I have noticed that the hold baggage fees are going up steadily and of course you also have to pay airport chieck in fees if you are checking in hold baggage.
It’s always worth checking the total price you’ll pay if there is more than one airline operating on the route on which you wish to travel. I’m flying with BA next week and the standard fare with them includes one small case plus a handbag/briefcase/computer bag to take on board plus a hold bag weighing 23 kgs (it’s only 15 kgs with Ryanair).
Just booked a flight to Bergerac from Liverpool. Now charging £5 per person per flight as booking fees. Total extortion until I realised that if I wanted to take one bag and check in at the airport that would cost another £40!.
How can a booking fee be based on the amount of passengers and flights when it is all done on the same booking?
BMI baby charged me 7 pounds on Sunday to book a flight even though the website said no charge if using a BMIbaby credit card. On telephoning [after a lot of fuss] was told the charge was reinstated on March 15 yet 6 weeks later they are still showing the wrong information. Try to speak to them, practically impossible! Customer services – zero.
NP – thanks for alerting me to the fact that the Ryanair card fee has increased again, I have changed the update.
I agree that the booknig fee should be per transaction but the only way, for the moment, to avoid the card fees is to get a Visa Electron card.
However look at the overall price that you pay and usually it’s still a good deal, I;d rather the advertised fares were higher to avoid all these additional costs as you are just left with an unpleasant feeling of being ripped off by all the additional fees charged by Ryanair.
Ann & Harry – unfortunately more airlines are jumping on bandwagon and charging for extras whenever they can. However if BMI Baby clearly stated there was no charge for paying by BMI Baby it’s ridiculous that they charged you and then you had to pay for phoen call and waste time to get them to correc their own mistake.
I have a Visa Electron card and have been charged by ryanair 3 times for 3 separate flights. All the flights were booked in Feb/ Mar. The charge was only £1.50 per one way flight which is not much compared to the credit card fees but when booking it did state that there would be no charge. I dont know if it is an error on behalf of my bank (which I doubt!!) or if Ryanair have changed their policy
I dont think its worth complaining about the error to them. Their way of business does leave a sour taste in your mouth.
antony – thanks for your comment, I am surpised that you were charged a payment fee when paying for Ryanair flights by Visa Electron card. I checked on the Ryanair site and it still says no fee for payment by Visa Electron. It may be worth checking wiht your bank.= but I assume that fee was charged by Ryanair rather than your bank. I haven’t booked a Ryanair flight since Decemeber 2008.
Just for info, Co-op no longer does the Electron card.
I am applying for a Halifax Easycash account, which does do the Electron card, specifically to avoid the charges from Ryanair and easyJet. I have just checked both websites and this is the only way of paying without being charged extra.
I don’t mind paying for all the other extras (extra bags, quick boarding etc) because I don’t often use them. But the fee-free with Electron is a scam.
soulsurfer – thanks very much for alerting me to the fact that the Co-op Bank no longer offer Visa Electron cards, I’ve amended the post. I phoned the Co-op to ask why and they told me that so many retailers in the UK and abroad don’t accept Visa Electron cards, so the Co-op decided it was better for their customers to be given the more widely accepted Visa Debit card.
I can’t find any other banks apart from the Halifax who offer Visa Electron cards with their current accounts, does anyone know of any other banks?