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"Sneaky credit card charges land Ryanair in hot water"

By admin | January 31st, 2010 | Credit Cards

The no frills budget airline Ryanair has found itself in hot water with the Office of Fair Trading for allegedly applying sneaky credit card charges to bump up costs for customers. The watchdog has slated the budget airline for getting more money from its passengers by applying sneaky credit card charges, and has been accused of ‘taunting customers’ and ‘playing silly games’ by the OFT.

The OFT is angry over the £5 per person per flight cost that the airline adds to credit and debit cards, which bumps up the cost of flights by £40 for a family of four people booking return flights. Whilst the airline advertises eye-catching prices for flights the cost can really be bumped up when charges such as these are added, and according to consumers laws all advertised prices should include any compulsory costs, which is what these credit and debit card charges amount to.

However, Ryanair has found a loophole, stating that the fees do not apply if customers pay by Mastercard Prepaid card. However, most of its customers do not pay by this card which means that they are stung by the fees.

John Fingleton from the Office of Fair Trading has been outraged by the tactics being used by the airline in order to entice customers by advertising rock bottom prices and then adding various fees and charges as they go along until the price is far higher than the headline price.

He said: “It’s almost like taunting consumers and pointing out, ‘Oh well, we know this is completely outside the spirit of the law, but we think it’s within the narrow letter of the law. On some level, it’s quite puerile, it’s almost childish, and you sort of smile.This is just playing silly games at the margins of it all and we might or might not go running after something like that.”

Tags: airline, No frills, Office of Fair Trading, John Fingleton, budget airline, Ryanair, credit card

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