All charges for paying by card to be banned

[PAXboy]

Among the companies that impose fees are the airlines Ryanair and easyJet, which charge a credit card fee of 2% and 1% respectively.The Treasury acknowledged that while this change was the result of an EU directive that related to Visa and MasterCard surcharges, the UK was “going further” by also banning charges for holders of American Express cards and users of services such as PayPal and Apple Pay.https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/19/charges-paying-card-banned-flights-tax-bills

I realise that this should probably be in AA&R but it will affect many people and airlines. I have had VS make a surcharge, even when using their own branded credit card.

[RealFish]

It will be the tour operators where the biggest impact will be seen, I suggest.

A package that we bought to Grenada last year would have cost us a surcharge of around £100 with Kuoni...BA Holidays did apply a surcharge of £10 so we booked with them (It's been reduced to £6 this year).

[crewmeal]

I would imagine the prices will rise to compensate for the loss. This would probably apply to everything else as well.

[Hartington]

Either prices will rise or they'll find a new charge to levy which has no connection with the for of payment but which covers their costs.

[PAXboy]

Yes, agreed. The base charges of ticket (air or concert) will rise. Since they will raise the base price of all tickets, ultimately, they will make more money.

[Espada III]

But Tesco don't charge for using a credit card, neither do car rental companies. With a supermarket, there is an alternative method of payment (cash or cheque), but car rental, like flights etc, has no alternative, so charging for payment by card is iniquitous.

[PAXboy]

I think their get out is that they do not charge for using a Debit card but only for a Credit card. There are many variations.

[RAT 5]

Many airlines did away with the freebie for debit card. Others did not charge a 'credit card' charge, but a booking fee. Nearly all my concerts are by on-line agencies and they charge a booking fee. I've alway wondered why. I'm doing most of the work and the computer e-mails my ticket. It's fully automated with me doing the manual bit. OK they have to design the website in the first place, but how much is that?

It was coincidental at XYZ LoCo a few years go. They charged €6/pax for booking (even though the credit card companies said it cost 30c). They carried 65m pax and the profit was +/-€400m. i.e. the credit card charge = annual profit. Curious that. Then they added the EU compensation surcharge for e.g. volcanic activity at €2/pax. 85m pax = a nice boost to profits and their payout has been peanuts. i.e. the credit card charge is too important a profit generator not to be recovered elsewhere. there will be ways.
All these companies have you but he short & curlies. You can only book via internet & credit card and they have free reign how much they charge for that facility. It has always been daft in a supposed transparent consumer market.

[ExXB]

Does it really matter? EU (yes, those bar-stewards in Brussels) regulations now require airlines to show their prices inclusive of all and sundry. LoCos no longer can offer £0.01 fares and bundle on another £50 - they are required to quote you £50.01. What is of interest to me is the total price. Yes, still a few things like baggage fees and cost of food - but those are optional. All the mandatory charges are inclusive.

I doubt the total price is going to change.

[HeartyMeatballs]

Not a loco specific issue though is it? Luftty has had its 'booking fee' for at least a decade. Is that any better?

[PAXboy]

Areed HM. It's all the same. It's called Two Tier Pricing and goes back a hundred years or more. Humans have become focussed on the 'striking price' and if that is lower - they are more likely to be drawn across the shop threshold be it actual or virtual.

It is why products are advertised at 9.99 and so on. So there is no chance of this kind of action going away - it will simply change. There did not used to be Booking Fees (especially when we have done all the work as RAT 5 states) so they will invent something else. If they put .50 on each ticket and call it inflation, they would proabably make more. I started the thread more as a general point than any kind of 'good news'.

[ExXB]

Unusually in Switzerland most goods and services are priced to either the whole franc, or a (next higher) round number.

What would be 19.99 in GB would be 20.00 in CH. 1950 would be 2000.

Not having a one cent coin makes having 19.99 more difficult, but there doesn't seem to be the perception here that 19.95 is a lot less than 20.00.

[vctenderness]

I'm sure 'Mental Micky' is, as we speak, dreaming up an alternative method of extracting the last penny/cent out of the travelling public when this change is implemented.

[wowzz]

I was under the impression that one of the reasons that prices ended in 99p, or indeed £1 19s 11d for us older folk, was to ensure that shop assistants had to open the till, in order to give change, thus minimising the opportunity to pocket the cash.