OFT(UK) warns travel companies on debit card charges

Travel companies, including the largest budget airline in Europe, have been told to stop hiding surcharges for customers who pay with debit cards.
The cost of processing debit cards is estimated to be 20p a transaction, but companies have been found to add up to £8 to final bills for payment by a debit card.


The Office of Fair Trading has warned that retailers that levy artificially high fees for card payments, or do not advertise fees charged, face action under consumer protection laws.
It has also recommended a change in the law to limit charges to the cost of processing card payments.


In an investigation of consumer charges in the travel industry, the watchdog found that a number of companies used a “drip pricing” method to add costs only at the very end of transactions.
Budget airlines including Ryanair were picked out as particular offenders.

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The charge was not a fee for using debit or credit cards, a spokesman told The Irish Times, but rather was an “administration fee” required “to defray the substantial costs associated with our booking system”. In addition, the fee could be avoided entirely by using a Ryanair-approved debit card, he said.

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