Have you been annoyed by airlines charging you up to £9.50 per person for a return flight booking, just for the privilege of handing over your own money to them? Do you know that if you fly with Aer Lingus, they add an £8 handling fee towards the end of the booking fee, but that there is a way of not having to pay this?
Avoiding card charge rip offs
The answer is simple - you just have to have the right piece of plastic:
The Visa Electron Card
Ironically, this card was previously associated with basic current accounts for people with a poor credit history. Most current accounts come with Visa Debit of Maestro Cards, and these can still attract the same high fees as paying by credit card. Although Easyjet charges more to pay by credit card, both Ryanair and Aer Lingus charge the same rate, regardless of how you pay - except if you use a Visa Electron card.
Fortunately, you don’t need to go round destroying your credit history in order to get a Visa Electron card. All you need to do is have an account with a bank which will issue you one. Ask you current account provider if they can do this. If not, we would recommend opening up a simple Cashminder account with the Co-operative bank. This can be topped up at any post office, so you don’t need to worry about whether or not you have a Co-op branch close to you. The account is even marketed as coming with no frills (just like the airlines) and no fuss (not like any airline we know!).
Once you have opened up one of these accounts, you just need to top it up each time you want to book a no frills flight - in much the same way that you might do for a pay as you go mobile. So we now have pay as you fly - it might be a bit more hassle than using your regular credit card, but it will cost you much less in the long run.
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[...] All you need to do to avoid the card handling fees is to get yourself an electron card — see our article about avoiding card charge rip-offs. [...]
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[...] I’ve said before, anyone can get an Electron Card, and you don’t need an MP’s expense account to [...]
Pingback by I’m waiting for my Electron Platinum Card « Flightblogging.com — May 1, 2009 @ 8:12 pm
The bad news is that the Co-op bank has stopped issuing visa electron cards from the 8th June. I haven’t as yet found anyone else who will issue one.
Comment by Dave Chappell — June 11, 2009 @ 10:13 am
That’s a nuisance - I hope mine will keep working. I wonder if this is due to people setting up accounts just to pay for cheap flights. I have seen a few of these cards around lately.
Comment by ja — June 19, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
Nobody seems to issue the Electron card anymore. The Co-operative Bank, Woolwich and Alliance & Leicester used to but have now stopped. Does anyone know who will issue an Electron card to avoid these extortionate airline charges?
Comment by Morgan — July 18, 2009 @ 10:00 am
We ran a story last week about this. I doubt they will be able to get away with these charges for much longer, as they are no longer optional, unless you had previously applied for such a card.
Comment by ja — July 19, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
There is another way, if you can’t get hold of a Visa Electron at your bank. Get a virtual one.
I just tried.
Comment by Travelbug — September 8, 2009 @ 2:23 pm
That is a useless rip off way of doing it (link not included here). They charge a handling fee of 4.95%, so you will very quickly gt stung even more than Ryanair charge you. And I don’t trust a company that says ‘backed by a European bank’ - not much re-assurance if they go down and take your money with them!
Comment by ja — September 8, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
You simply go to a bank like alliance leister and ask for a debit card. Or you can get a prepaid visa electron which will work fine too.
Comment by visa electron shops — October 14, 2009 @ 10:12 am
Thanks for that - you have clearly done a lot of research on the usage of Electron Cards, any chance you could stick up a post in your blogs about which banks still issue them, and I’ll gladly link to it. I’m more interested in bank accounts which issue electron cards than pre-paid ones. We’re talking about appealing to total cheapskates here, using a pre-paid card just swaps one set of fees for another - even though it is obviously still cheaper to go down this route than to use a different card when booking those very cheap 1p Ryanair flights! Billund calling next month
Comment by ja — October 15, 2009 @ 8:35 am