Card Charges

The Office of Fair Trading has ordered travel companies to end the use of hidden card charges. According the an article on the BBC airline, ferry and rail customers spend £300 billion a YEAR in hidden charges. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13932299


It's funny isn't it, you go into Tesco, or Asda, or Next or whoever, hand over your plastic, be it credit or debit card, the thing is swiped, the computer says 'yes' (or occasionally no), and you pay the exact amount that your goods total, with no hidden charges or fees. You book your flight, or your ferry crossing or train tickets on line, and BANG, hidden charge for using a card. It's online FFS, how else are your going to pay................stuff pound notes down the telephone line????? I wish!


Now I know that companies have to pay to have card machines, typically the charge for using a credit card is 2% or the transaction fee, debit cards works on a flat fee basis, about £0.20 -£0.50 I believe. But this is all part of doing business isn't it? And surely, if the retailer takes sensible precautions, card payment is relatively secure, better than cheques for example. After all, if the funds aren't there, the computer says no!!!


There are a few places that will charge you to pay by credit card as opposed to debit card; hotels for example, several I have worked in have levied charges if people wish to pay with credit card, but it appears to be online travel merchants that are the worst culprits. Some of the cheapie airlines only don't charge you if you pay be Visa Electron, and only about two financial institutions in this country offer Visa Electron, and one of them is getting rid of it. It is also, bit like Solo (now also gone), often offered to those people with a very poor credit rating - you can only use it if you physically have the money in your account, you can't pre-authorise (something hotels do a lot of). Suspect that's why the cheapie airlines like it.


Now when you use your credit or debit card to pay for goods online, you often have a little pause while the transaction is authorised. This is just like when the chip and machine dials your bank and checks if you are solvent enough to buy the entire summer collection in Gap!!! So, the booking website calls your bank and asks if you have enough cash, or credit, to fly to the moon (and back), and if so, the transaction is authorised, and baring card fraud and the merchants negligence, they get the money, and you get to go to then moon!!!


Part of me understands the charge, but I would actually understand it more if the high street levied it...............after all, you could actually go to the bank and get the cash. But when you buy online, you don't actually have a choice do you? As I said, I can't physically get the pound notes down the phone line, so how else do I pay, if not by card???