Visa Electron cards to be phased out

Yeah but I agree with Kev - why should we pay anything at all for purchasing flights?  We havent had to up until now with Visa Electron and when you purchase flights regularly it all adds up over the year.  I'd rather £1.50 in my pocket than some credit card company.  I shall keep looking for a card that wont cost me.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/prepaidcards/

Thank you Marksfish - will have a look

check them out thouroughly though as some will have a limit per year of what you can load up also if you do want to use it abroad at an atm then you will be charged

Does anyone know what the situation is if you live in Ireland.  I had to get my Halifax card from Spain as we can not get them from Halifax here in Ireland. Are any of the cards mentioned below available to us here in Ireland.  By the way I have just been looking at Ryan Air flights up to end of June and they are great value no taxes. So I got a return flight Dublin Malaga for one for 66.98 euro and no credit card fee!!

 Hi Conrad, Yes I agree with what you said. However, if the £150 is for 2 return flights will the charge be £1.50 x 4 = £6.00 or just £1.50? With a debit card it would be 4 times the charge. I imagine Ryan have moved away from electron as I suspect more and more were using it and it reduces their revenue.

I wonder if the others will follow Ryan and ditch electron.

Kevin

If the card charges, it will be per transaction not per person as it is a card issuer charge, not Ryanair. you need to check what cards charge what though as I have seen some that charge 2.75% of the transaction!!

I imagine Ryan have moved away from electron as I suspect more and more were using it and it reduces their revenue.

Not so, it is because Visa are withdrawig Electron cards. The other airliones will have to follow suit if they want to offer a free payment method as Electron will no longer be an option.

Mark

(interesting thought though and one probably worthy of another thread. Can you use them with hire cars? Probably not!! You normally cannot use a debit card or cash to hire a car, it must be a credit card. These cards are not credit cards, you DO NOT benefit from the terms of the consumer credit act protection as they are in reality just another debit card. I thin many people will get caught with this, purely because of the Mastercard symbol!)

 Thanks for the information. I hadn't realised that electron cards were being withdrawn. The fact of a charge being made seems a little surprising as you have already paid the money over to the card issuer. Although I suspect with the low interest rates they are not making much on the cash they hold.

I think you are right that some people will rely on the card to hire a car and get caught out. Kevin

 I think neteller.com is the card to get avoiding any charges if you want to use it to buy Ryanair flights. £3 to use ATM and 2.95% foreign currency transaction. Looks like this might be the one to have? Kevin

Halifax are still issuing Electron cards so as long as the rest of the airlines continue to accept them without charge they remain the cheapest option and they are less hassle than a pre paid card.

We have a current account with the halifax  in the UK and have a debit card issued with that account.

Does anyone know if we can get a Electron card with a current account or do you have to open a specific type of account to get the Electron card.

Many thanks in advance

(interesting thought though and one probably worthy of another thread. Can you use them with hire cars? Probably not!! You normally cannot use a debit card or cash to hire a car, it must be a credit card. These cards are not credit cards, you DO NOT benefit from the terms of the consumer credit act protection as they are in reality just another debit card. I thin many people will get caught with this, purely because of the Mastercard symbol!)

I have, in fact, used my debit card to hire cars several times in Spain without any query (always using it to pay for a confirmed booking at the desk) and I have just used my new Caxton FX eurocard to do the same again!

Yes, it is true that debit card purchases are not covered by the consumer credit act protection as you are with credit cards for purchases over £100.

One way around this would be to make sure you have travel insurance that includes scheduled airline failure.

regards

Hi Peteranne

I have a Halifax account but I had to open another account to get the electron card.  It's not a problem though the account you get the electron card with is just a bog standard account in that if you haven't got sufficient funds in the account then the card will be delined.  All I do is use mine for booking flights and I have internet access for both my current account and my electron account, when I see  flights I want to book I just transfer the necessary funds to the electron account which is an instant transaction if you have them both set up for internet access.   Easy peasy and saved me a fortune!!

Hi everyone i think someone has got this a little bit wrong yes Rayan air is stopping using Electron cards because they have a tie up with MasterCard and NOT because the Electron card is being fased out they are going to produce one of their own Card. Get it so as they can make more money out of us. Hope this clears this up.

I stand corrected but I believe ryanair have been officially criticised for their "unfair"  methods of charging, I think by the OFT.

Saw something on Sky News this morning.

Hi Smivs

Many thanks for the reply.

We have internet access on our Halifax accounts, so this seems a good option for us. will ask about it next time we are in the branch

Regards

Pilgrim

You are correct the OFT have slammed Ryanair and O leary replied that the OFT may want to look at BA and other stautions before they hurl mud.

Apparently the law states airlines can advertise cheap fares without showing all cost provided they offer customers at least one free way of paying hence the move to a new card.

It is the law which needs changing though Ryanair as usual like to sail close to the wind

I have just booked 2 return flights with ryanair

for may with my electron debit card and I have

not been charged for using the card

I have just booked some flights with Ryan air and they have started charging £5 /person each way for electron card.Didnt realise untill i had booked.  So it dosen`t mater which card you use you have no choice!!!! Not sure about easy jet?