Ryanair is introducing a 2% credit card fee in addition to its £6 admin fee for all bookings made from this Friday.
The budget airline claimed the 2% charge was to cover the cost of processing card payments and it said it was announcing the fee today to comply with the Office of Fair Trading ruling earlier this year which said airlines’ fees must be more transparent.
Passengers paying with debit cards, including Ryanair’s Cash Passport card or German ELV transfer, can avoid the 2% fee.
Passengers paying by Cash Passport in Ireland, Germany and Spain will also avoid the £6/€6 admin fee until February 1, February 15 and March 21 respectively.
The OFT carried out an investigation into airline charges earlier this year and ruled in July that passengers should not be charged extra to pay by debit card as this was the equivalent of using cash online, however it said airlines could charge extra for credit card payments as long as they were upfront about the fees.
The OFT estimated that card payments cost consumers a total of £300m a year.
