Once again, Ryanair is at it again when it comes to milking money out of the consumer.
Whilst the Office of Fair Trading and Which? are keeping pressures on the anti-competitive use of Debit cards and charges, Ryanair comes along to boss around by changing the terms of it’s payment.
At the moment, to pay any Ryanair fare you’re charged the privilege of £6 per leg (so £12 return on a trip). But if you wanted to not pay this, you had to use a PrePaid MasterCard.
It seems the comedians of the air now are changing the goalposts, and will now levy the fee to every Prepaid MasterCard EXCEPT THEIR OWN (Called the Ryanair Cash Passport).
This fee change goes into effect on the 1st November 2011.
Ryanair dresses this up as
“Ryanair’s £6 admin fee will not apply to any bookings made with Ryanair Cash Passport and there are no transaction charges for using the card at UK merchants until 31 March 2012, so we recommend that UK passengers make the switch to Ryanair Cash Passport as soon as possible.”
Of course, MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis says (and quite rightly)
“Ryanair is sticking two fingers up at every regulator and consumer group with this news.”
“This is anti-competitive, it’s an insult to loyal passengers who first got Electron cards so they could pay for free, then were forced to switch to prepaid Mastercards and are now being asked to dance again this time by getting its own prepaid card”
Gentle reader, it doesn’t take a mind reader to work out my thoughts about this change. But for the friends of Ryanair and for those who think of flying with Ryanair some large words of advice:
- ALWAYS IGNORE THE HEADLINE FARE
- GO THROUGH THE CHECKOUT PROCESS AND WORK OUT HOW MUCH IT IS AT THE END
- COMPARE WITH OTHER CARRIERS
- REMEMBER TO ADD IN TRANSIT COSTS AT BOTH ENDS
