Get the right payment card and deny Ryanair its hefty fee
Ryanair announced last week that it will only exempt one payment card from its transaction fees – the MasterCard Prepaid. Any other card attracts the £5 or €5 fee per flight, regardless of whether it is credit or debit.
So, passengers must now jump through another hoop to avoid Ryanair’s heinous extra charges, but it isn’t the only baddie of the airline world. There are plenty of ther carriers charging pounds for a transaction that costs a few pence, particularly in the case of debit card transactions.
“On a debit card the transaction charge is pennies”, Bob Atkinson, travel expert at travelsupermarket.com told me. “Ryanair is charging you £10 for a return flight when they are paying no more than 30 or 40 pence to the card provider, so they are making a lot of money out of this.
“Credit card transaction charges are a bit higher, but they still tend to be a low percentage of the transaction value – usually no more than 1 or 2 per cent. On a Ryanair return fare of £40, the passenger is paying £10 in credit card charges – 25 per cent of the transaction value.”
The airline may plea that they have their own costs for handling card transactions, but does it really amount to £4 or more per flight?
“The airline’s own costs for handling credit card payments are minimal – it is largely automated. So at the end of the day, this is substantial profiteering,” says Atkinson.
There seems little debate in the industry that card transaction fees are another ancilliary revenue source for airlines.
Sam Baldwin of flight booking site skyscanner.net told me: “Given that most banks only charge the airline between 1.5-2.5 per cent of the transaction fee, these credit and debit card charges are an additional revenue stream for airlines.
“The charges apply even if all bookings are made at the same time on the same card, which seems excessive.”
Ryanair may top the table for its fee of £10 on a return flight (even if it’s paid in one transaction), but others are also profiting.
Among the other airlines requesting considerable fees are Monarch and Jet2, which charge a 5 per cent fee and a minimum of £4.99 plus 2.25 per cent for credit card bookings (see the table of airline card charges).
British Airways and Bmi charge £4.50 for credit card bookings and make no charge for bookings made with a debit or Prepaid card.
Virgin charges a more reasonable 1.5 per cent on a credit card booking and nothing for a debit or Prepaid card, but book multiple people on a long-haul ticket and the fees soon add up.
Before you rush out to get a debit or Prepaid card to save money, bear in mind that booking with one comes with increased risk and potential fees.
Air passengers who book with a debit or Prepaid card to save money leave themselves exposed if the airline goes bust or the flight is cancelled for a reason that is beyond the airline’s control. In these circumstances, passengers who paid with a credit card can pursue their card provider for a refund if the payment was more than £100. Though not always successful, it does offer the chance of a refund. The same does not apply to debit or Prepaid card purchases.
Looking at Ryanair’s bottom line, flight bookings with the carrier should be secure, so those willing to take the minimal risk might save money by paying with a Prepaid card. I say might because there are costs associated with most Prepaid cards.
It varies according to the card provider, but can include a set-up fee of up to £30, monthly service charges of up to £5, and loading fee or cash withdrawal or purchase fee of up to £5. Most card providers rarely charge all three, and some don’t make any charges, so it’s a case of shopping around before choosing one.
There’s a reluctance among passengers to do that, says Atkinson, either because of the hassle or because of concern for filling a wallet with payment cards and losing track of them. But he implores frequent fliers to apply for one: “Part of me thinks, here we go again, moving the goalposts.
“But I’d advise people to deny Ryanair the chance to charge you these exorbitant fees for using a credit card that are nothing like what Ryanair pays to the credit card provider.”
It may feel like a rock and a hard place, stuck between the airlines and the Prepaid card providers, but do your research and it will pay off – at £10 on a return flight for a family of four, that’s a £40 out of Michael O’Leary’s pocket and into yours. (Via Original Source)
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Is there going to be a demo?
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Are there going to be free dlc ?
What about a joe madureira artbook in some collector edition ?
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Good job guys! Keep em coming.
This comment was originally posted on VG247
How much Exploration is there in the game?
This comment was originally posted on VG247
What kind of length are we looking at (matron)?
The footage shown so far looks very action-oriented, but they keep saying it’s almost Zelda-like. What’s on offer besides the action? And why aren’t we seeing some of that too?
This comment was originally posted on VG247
are they worried about releasing on the same day as bayonetta?
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Is there a sequel planned?
This comment was originally posted on VG247
seeing that there is Playstation Home outfits coming will there be a Home Space aswell?
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Will there be several beasts you can change into is it just the one.
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will you be able to swim or does water = instant death
This comment was originally posted on VG247
People only really heard about this game when it started to get good reviews, whats their opinion on Darksiders overall lack of coverage and hype?
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Thanks loads. Questions sent.
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any collectors edition ??
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1. Are there any other melee weapons besides the sword?
2. If there are other melee weapons is there swift(meaning press a single button once) weapon switching while playing the game?
3. Are there other projectile weapons besides the gun?
4. If there are other projectile weapons besides the gun, is there swift(meaning press a single button once) weapon switching while playing the game.
5. Are there counter attacks? More specifically, if you time a certain action to occur just at the moment an npc strikes, will the player do a unique move that puts him at an advantage to follow up with a sequence of strikes?
6. How many levels of upgrades to the character and his weapons have?
7. Can low level NPCs be dismembered without a quick time event?
8. Are there ways to reflect projectiles NPCs shoot towards you back to the NPC that shot the projectile or other NPCs nearby?
9. Can the character disarm NPCs that have weapons and use those weapons?
10. Is there any vertical or horizontal wall running?
11. What abilities does the horse have other than being a conveyance?
12. Does the main character get any other companions besides the horse?
13. Wouldn’t this game have better sales prospects if it was released from April-August 2009 so it didn’t have to compete with Bayonetta, Dante’s Inferno, or God Of War 3? This game looks good and looks like a worthy purchase, but there’s a version of Bayonetta that got a perfect score from Famitsu and the notoriously hard to impress Edge magazine. It seems to me that this good looking game would have even better sales prospects if it had less fierce competition.
This comment was originally posted on VG247
1. Are there any other melee weapons besides the sword?
2. If there are other melee weapons is there swift(meaning press a single button once) weapon switching while playing the game?
3. Are there other projectile weapons besides the gun?
4. If there are other projectile weapons besides the gun, is there swift(meaning press a single button once) weapon switching while playing the game.
5. Are there counter attacks? More specifically, if you time a certain action to occur just at the moment an npc strikes, will the player do a unique move that puts him at an advantage to follow up?
6. How many levels of upgrades to the character and his weapons are there?
7. Can low level NPCs be dismembered without a quick time event?
8. Are there ways to reflect projectiles NPCs shoot towards you back to the NPC that shot the projectile or other NPCs nearby?
9. Can the character disarm NPCs that have weapons and use those weapons?
10. Is there any vertical or horizontal wall running?
11. What abilities does the horse have other than being a conveyance?
12. Wouldn’t this game have better sales prospects if it was released from April-Auguste 2009 so it didn’t have to compete with Bayonetta, Dante’s Inferno, or God Of War 3? There’s a version of Bayonetta that got a perfect score from Famitsu and the notoriously hard to impress Edge magazine.
This comment was originally posted on VG247
Wow. Just wow. Hat’s off to FeaturePreacher. Hand him a beer and a hooker while your at it. He deserves it. *claps* Seriously. Good job there. Too bad I already sent the questions off
This comment was originally posted on VG247
So there’s no chance of sending those questions to them?
This comment was originally posted on VG247
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