IT IS only right that travel companies are being threatened with action over the appalling charges they whack on customers who pay with a debit or credit card.
The Office of Fair Trading says UK customers spent £300 million on surcharges in 2009.
That is a staggering amount of money.
Although it hasn’t gone as far as naming and shaming those involved, it points out that easyJet charged £8 per debit or credit card transaction, while Ryanair added £6 per journey and Trainline charged £3.50 for a credit card transaction.
The OFT now wants the government to ban such surcharges on all debit card transactions, but not credit card ones as they are more costly to process.
We have never understood how firms have been allowed to get away with this for so long.
It’s the same when buying show tickets, the quoted price is never what has to be paid.
We hope this enforcement action is taken sooner rather than later.
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