RyanAir to charge transaction fee for Visa card holders

Starting January 1st, Visa Electron card holders will now face an extra five pounds per person service charge, each time they try to book RyanAir tickets online. However, MasterCard prepaid card holders will not have to pay the service charge to book on RyanAir.

Prepaid online cards given out by both MasterCard and Visa which are topped up before use. According to the UK Cards Association, around 1.7 million people in the UK use the prepaid cards. Subscription to these pre paid cards usually includes various charges such as set up fees, cash withdrawal levies, monthly charges etc. However, a credit check is not required to own a Prepaid card.

Such cards are available all across Europe. These can be obtained from financial institutions and online companies around the continent. It is being reported that the Visa Electron payment service will soon be phased out by two of its major suppliers.

As of the present time, many airlines such as Aer Lingus, BMIBaby, Easyjet, RyanAir and Flybe do not charge the extra transaction fee to passengers booking online using Visa Electron cards. However, no other card is exempt from paying a transaction fee which usually is charged per person per flight.

The consumer groups believe that if airlines cannot provide one free payment option then they must compensate for it by duly increasing their advertised headline price. The extra payment charge must be included into headlined fares if it is not an optional payment, they argue.

The rules set by the Advertising Standards Authority declare that all non-optional prices must be included into the price set by an advert.