Being charged for card usage over the internet

[Lois22]

Are there any limits as to what companies can charge for paying for services over the internet?
Booking some flights and they want a £40 handling fee They're charging it per person rather than for the transaction...surely that's unreasonable?!!!

[_Batty_]

have you seen how many companies have gone bust recently?
XL etc etc, with card companies having to foot the bill...

if you want a cheaper alternative, come and spend the week (in bed) with me

HTH

[Lois22]

Thanks for the offer, I'll pay the money.

[Vesuvius 996]

Lois22 said:

Thanks for the offer, I'll pay the money.

[_Batty_]

Lois22 said:

Thanks for the offer, I'll pay the money.

well least i was upfront

Edited by _Batty_ on Wednesday 17th September 20:28

[Lois22]

I'd rather these companies were more upfront too instead of you budgeting for one price and then being stung for all the non-optional extra's later on....

[minimax]

could it be just a charge for using a card?

I was booking a hol yesterday on that t'internet and they charged me.. said it was a processing charge - and come to think of it, I am sure I have been charged for card use in travel agents in years gone by

[AngryApples]

If its a credit card, merchant agreements have rules as to the amounts that can be charged

£40 seems madness

[V8mate]

minimax said:

could it be just a charge for using a card?

I was booking a hol yesterday on that t'internet and they charged me.. said it was a processing charge - and come to think of it, I am sure I have been charged for card use in travel agents in years gone by

Yep - Thomas Cook charge a fee for using credit card in their shops - 2.5% IIRC - can add up to quite a bit on a family holiday

[Meeja]

I recently booked flights to Glasgow for a meeting in October with BMI.

Cheap flight prices (Seben quid excluding taxes) but the number of chargeable additions was unreal.

Checking in fee
Luggage fee
VIP lounge fee
Need a piss on the flight fee

etc etc etc

More annoyingly, all of the options were already ticked, and you had to deselect them all, one by one (some of them were nicely hidden too!)

I had to go through the entire process twice to make sure I got JUST the flight! (I'm going to a three hour meeting so will be travelling very light!)

Then at the end the cheeky feckers charged me £12 per person to pay by Credit Card.

Surely that is profiteering?

[AJI]

Why do they [companies] charge for credit card internet bookings anyway?
It is us that are doing all the work in making the booking.... and the payment is all automatic/electronic.
So why the extra charges?.... more, how do they justify them?

[Wacky Racer]

Meeja said:

Need a piss on the flight fee

Really???

[Meeja]

AJI]Why do they [companies said:

charge for credit card internet bookings anyway?
It is us that are doing all the work in making the booking.... and the payment is all automatic/electronic.
So why the extra charges?.... more, how do they justify them?

I think that any retailer has to make a small payment to the CC company when they make a CC transaction (from memory when my father ran a high street shop many years ago it was a small but not insignificant amount)

But to charge anything more than 2.5-3% is daylight robbery, and almost certainly adds to the retailer's profits.

Not that I am involved in retail, or retail analysis in any way!

[cs02rm0]

Don't pay by card, then get travel insurance separately? Can work out cheaper @2.5% on a holiday.

[Meeja]

Wacky Racer said:

Meeja said:

Need a piss on the flight fee

Really???

No, but you get the idea!

They literaslly advertised a really low price to suck you in, then load up the price using options.

As it was business, I wasn't over-ly fussed about the bargain price - but if the entire bill had ended up as more expensive that the train, I would have opted for a four hour rail journey, with a bit more flexibility in my return time!

[mgtony]

Wacky Racer said:

Meeja said:

Need a piss on the flight fee

Really???

Toilet humour!

[Vesuvius 996]

Meeja said:

I recently booked flights to Glasgow for a meeting in October with BMI.

Cheap flight prices (Seben quid excluding taxes) but the number of chargeable additions was unreal.

Checking in fee
Luggage fee
VIP lounge fee
Need a piss on the flight fee

etc etc etc

More annoyingly, all of the options were already ticked, and you had to deselect them all, one by one (some of them were nicely hidden too!)

I had to go through the entire process twice to make sure I got JUST the flight! (I'm going to a three hour meeting so will be travelling very light!)

Then at the end the cheeky feckers charged me £12 per person to pay by Credit Card.

Surely that is profiteering?

Awww shame.

When they adverstise flights for £1, you do actaulyl realise that that's a figure to drag you in. The actaul price has no resemblance to that, because it costs a lot more than £1 to get a plane from London to Prague, see.

[Neil_H]

Meeja said:

I recently booked flights to Glasgow for a meeting in October with BMI.

Cheap flight prices (Seben quid excluding taxes) but the number of chargeable additions was unreal.

Checking in fee
Luggage fee
VIP lounge fee
Need a piss on the flight fee

etc etc etc

More annoyingly, all of the options were already ticked, and you had to deselect them all, one by one (some of them were nicely hidden too!)

I had to go through the entire process twice to make sure I got JUST the flight! (I'm going to a three hour meeting so will be travelling very light!)

Then at the end the cheeky feckers charged me £12 per person to pay by Credit Card.

Surely that is profiteering?

Well they have to get the money off you somehow, flying people hundreds of miles for the price of a short-ish taxi journey isn't sustainable otherwise.

[jonnyb]

Most travel agents or airlines will pass on the credit card handling fee to you. This is the fee charged by the credit card company to the retailer. At the very best these companys make about 5% profit on your booking. So if they absorbed the fee it would half their profit margin!

£40 is a bit steep though, unless your paying by AMEX.

[Lois22]

It's for 5 flights and works out at a nearly 25% charge. I can understand a processing fee for the credit card, but it's only one transaction for one amount so why the hell are they charging per person?!!