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Ryanair Cash Passport – Smallprint Fees WARNING

In order to avoid costly booking charges, RyanAir’s customers have certainly had to do the rounds over the years. First was the move from Debit Cards to Visa Electron in order to waive the fees. Then there was the move from Visa Electron to Prepaid MasterCards as RyanAir changed the goalposts.

Now RyanAir have announced a further change revealing that from 1st November, the only prepaid MasterCard its customers can use to waive the booking fees is by paying with the soon to launch “RyanAir Cash Passport” – their very own prepaid MasterCard.

If this new RyanAir prepaid MasterCard does use the same foreign exchange rates structure as the other Cash Passport models, then their customers can expect to pay up to 4.35% more on every transaction abroad than other prepaid travel card providers.

RyanAir are in no rush to release the terms and conditions of the card. If the RyanAir prepaid MasterCard is use the current Cash Passport fees, you can expect the below charges;

For every transaction and withdrawal abroad you will be charged a 5.75% foreign transaction fee, where other prepaid cards can charge as little as 1.4%.
A 2% loading fee when topping up your card, when other providers charge nothing.
For every months you don’t use the card after 12 months of inactivity, there will be a £2.00 inactivity charge.
If this £2.00 charge cannot be taken due to lack of funds, there is a further £10 negative balance fee

As well as the charges whilst you are abroad, you may be thinking you can use the card in the UK in which case you will again be looking at hefty charges including;

A £2 UK ATM fee.
A 50p charge for all transactions, other than RyanAir bookings, from April 2012.

“RyanAir are taking advantage of their customers with this announcement” Said FairFX CEO and prepaid card expert Stephen Heath. “They are telling their customers to buy their own card, which they profit from, in order to get around their own fees. It’s unbelievable”.

This comes shortly after the OFT said it would be investigating airlines surcharges on debit and credit cards, the result of a super-complaint from consumer group Which?.

Stephen Heath went on to say “It will be interesting reading the terms and conditions for this new ‘RyanAir Cash Passport’ and I think RyanAir customers are in for a nasty shock. Cash Passports have consistently had higher charges than many other prepaid card providers and it’s rather fitting that RyanAir, also known for its excessive charges, have jumped into bed with them.”

Thursday 22 September 2011, 03:16pm

Tags: cash passport, mastercard, prepaid mastercard, ryanair, ryanair cash passport, ryanair prepaid mastercard