Ryanair slammed by OFT over card charges

Airline "puerile" says watchdog chief

By Elliot Wright, 4th January 2010

Budget airline Ryanair has been accused by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) of "taunting customers" with its payment policy.

OFT Chief Executive John Fingleton is furious at the Irish company for the charges it adds to the price of tickets when customers make an online booking with a credit or debit card.

Mr Fingleton says that the company is exploiting a legal loophole whereby an airline can advertise cheap fares that do not include additional credit card charges as long as it offers at least one free method of paying.

The one and only way customers can avoid Ryanair's charges is if they use a MasterCard prepaid card - a method Mr Fingleton describes as 'rare'.

For customers using any other kind of payment method a charge of £5 is levied upon each ticket, meaning that a family of four would have to cough up £40 in card charges.

For customers using any other kind of payment method a charge of £5 is levied upon each ticket, meaning that a family of four would have to cough up £40 in card charges

Speaking to The Independent newspaper, Mr Fingleton said: "Ryanair has this funny game where they have found some very low frequency payment mechanism and say: 'Well because you can pay with that'.

"It's almost like taunting consumers and pointing out: 'Oh well, we know this is completely outside the spirit of the law, but we think it's within the narrow letter of the law'."

He added: "On some level it's quite puerile - it's almost childish.

Stephen McNamara, head of communications at Ryanair, responded to the criticism saying that the airline isn't targeted at people like John Fingleton but at the everyday person who opts for guaranteed low fares with the option to avoid extra charges such as baggage charges and fuel surcharges.

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