Well after yesterdays announcement that Abbey and Travelex are abandoning Visa Electron, Ryanair is taking advantage of this, and abandoning the Electron platform too.
However, to preserve customer choice and wider acceptability, instead of lowering fees for other debit or credit cards, they’ll now accept PrePaid MasterCards only as a fee-free form of payment.
Avalible as gift cards, PrePaid things and all sorts of promos, granted- they’re easier to get hold of. The Fees however will add up – including
- Purchase of card fee
- Loading fees
- Non useage fees
- etc
MasterCard UK has a list of card issuers.
Is this a good move? Probably in some respects as it opens lower reoccuring fees (of up to a £5 a time).
The fact you have to acquire the card (£5-£10) and then pay a load fee (2.5%-5%) means you really have to do a LOT more research.
Visa Electron users will suffer a £5/€5 fee from 1st January 2010. PrePaid MasterCard will accepted fee-free from 1st December 2009.
Note this is just for the booking fee that Ryanair levies on its users. Any other fees (air, toilet, luggage, checkin, etc) are still chargeable.
As sad as it sounds – expect other LCC’s to follow.
