ew payment method for Ryanair

 Ryanaiar are changing the card used for avoiding fees again. Beginning October, the Ryanair Prepaid Mastercard will be the one to use, all other cards incur the £6 each way booking fee fom 1st November. Can't see any way of applying for it, the link given on the Ryanair website is broken and a list of Travelex cards doesn't list theirs!

Best book my flight quickly with my old card 

Mark

(Course, title should also be New )

the new no fees card is The Ryanair Cash Passport it is not released until October 4th so get in fast on the day 

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 believe the Banco Sabadell pre-paid Visa will also work?

 by Faro

I believe the Banco Sabadell pre-paid Visa will also work?

Only for flights booked before the 1st November.  After that, only the Ryanair card will be fee free.  And I thought the only fee free ones at the moment were Mastercard, not Visa.

strange - because the Banco Sabadell card is being promoted in the current Banco Sabadell magazine.

But as always it's always in the smallprint!

How on earth can the Ryanaii Cash Passport have an inactivity charge?

What happens if you no longer have any use for the card and simply stop topping up?

 If you don't top it up and don't use it for 6 months, the inactivity clause kicks in and you get charged the monthly fee.  If it hasn't been topped up and there is not enough to pay the inactivity fee then an extra charge of £10 is levied.  Great, huh?  Guess you would have to ensure the card was cancelled so you don't ring up the charges.

O'Leary, you just gotta love him and his ideas!  (At the risk of all the "I got a flight for fourpence and no taxes" crowd coming out, no, they are not always the cheapest.)

 It's not just Ryanair that has a inactivity charge, most of them do if you look in the small print. I got caught out by the Escape prepaid card. I read the t&c's that said the fee kicks in after 12 months of inactivity. I was pointed to the correct t&c's ( for a non upgraded card) where the fee kicks in after 3 months and a £1 monthly fee thereafter.

Having seen the minimum loading amount, I shan't be bothering with it, unless I can top up sneakily by BACS with a lesser amount. I've never had a £4 flight, but they are still cheaper with the £12 fee than Jet2 (their only real local competition) are for a FREE flight!!

Mark

 So if you buy a Ryanair flight every 6mths it costs you nothing ?

 Thanks Marksfish for mentioning the Escape prepaid card. I hadn't realised about the inactivity fee. I have just cancelled it with 3 days to spare seeing as Ryanair will not be accepting it any more anyway.

I do think that O'Leary is shooting himself in the foot with this one though. I don't mind going through some hoops to get a cheap deal but this is getting ridiculous. Having to put £150 on and then charging you to get your money back when you cancel - I would rather pay the fees and not go so often - maybe