RYAN AIR - CHANGES APPROACH TO HOW TO WAIVE FEES

Information below may be of interest........................

Ryanair,  is about to change its rules .

It currently charges customers £6 per person each way (£48 for a family of four return) for the privilege of paying.

It only gets away with this not counting as a compulsory part of the price as prepaid Mastercard customers can pay for free. But from 1 November, only those who pay with its own new plastic will get away charge-free.

The move comes after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) pledged to crack down on misleading card surcharges in June, following a super complaint by consumer lobby group Which?.

The controversial budget airline made the announcement as it revealed the launch of its new card, the Ryanair Cash Passport, a prepaid Mastercard, which will be available from 4 October.

I guess we'll all be applying for the Ryanair Cash Passport come 4th October.  Well done Rowleyhouse!

From next week Ryanair’s new prepaid MasterCard will become the only free payment method when booking flights with the airline – and This is Money can reveal the terms and conditions of the card.

Currently, passengers can dodge the £6 Ryanair each way administration fee by using any prepaid MasterCard.

However, the airline will change the rules so that only bookings made with its own brand MasterCard prepaid card will enable passengers to dodge the fees.

And it carries some eye-watering charges buried within its terms and conditions.

Ryanair Cash Passport: Booking fee beating but with high charges

For every transaction and withdrawal abroad, card holders will be charged a whopping 5.75 per cent foreign transaction fee.

Other prepaid cards tend to charge a much lower 2.75 per cent, although some are even lower than this figure.

As well as this 5.75 per cent fee, each withdrawal from an ATM will cost £2 on top. Many other prepaid cards have no additional charge at all, or a lower fee.

Another sneaky charge is an ‘inactivity fee’ which means that if the card is not used for over six months, a £2.50 charge per month will be levied on the account going forward.

If this £2.50 charge cannot be taken due to lack of funds, there is a further £10 negative balance fee.

A minimum load on the card will be set at £150, whereas many other prepaid cards are typically set at £100 – but some are as low as £50. And unless you only buy Ryanair flights, it will cost you to get the money back off it.

The card will charge you £4 over the counter fee for withdrawing money at banks or bureau de change and again the 5.75 per cent charge if you do this abroad.

Using the card in the UK will also see a £2 ATM fee and a 50p charge for all transactions, other than Ryanair bookings, from April 2012.

The card will also cost £6 to obtain – although this can be recovered in the form of Ryanair vouchers when you buy flights online.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2042772/Ryanair-booking-fee-avoiding-Cash-Passport-prepaid-card-carry-hefty-charges.html#ixzz1ZilnVVux

I'm told the Banco Sabadell pre-paid Visa will also work