Ryanair card fees - change for the better or another moneymaking scam!

So Michael O'Learys latest move is to ditch Electron cards in favour of Prepaid Mastercard Credit Cards as the only fee free way to pay for flights on Ryanair - is this a good move for the consumer or just a way of increasing the companies income at a time of economic hardship?

On the face of it there is little to applaud in the move.

Giving a months notice does let those who are aware of Ryanairs plans time to apply for an alternative card, but there will be many who won't take action quickly enough, especially at Christmas - and as a third of Ryanairs 60 million tickets are currently bought using Electron I am pretty sure that Ryanairs income from this area will rise in the early months of 2010.

Then there is the lack of consumer protection - Prepaid cards basically offer the same protection when buying something as cash - none - so consumers will loose the ability to look to their card provider if the airline fails (and unlike bank accounts these cards are not part of the depositors protection schemes).

Then there are the under 18s - cardholders need to be 18 to hold a Prepaid mastercard.

Then there are fees - even our recommended card - the CaxtonFX Global Traveller charges £1.50 for a UK transaction (although unlike the next best ICE card does not charge a 2% loading fee). The CaxtonFX card also has no annual fees, or application costs. For our full article please read our 'Beat the Ryanair surcharge article' in moneymaxim articles section.

Also the minimum amount you can credit a card is £100, which means you may well be left with a surplus balance on the card earning no interest.

So is there an upside?

The only ones we can think of is that the personal checks carried out before a card is issued looks more at anti fraud than credit rating, the cards are easy to get hold of, and the card is a reasonable back up when abroad (but not as good as a prepaid card in Euros or US dollars if thats where you are travelling to)..buts thats pretty small consolation. (See our travel money abroad article for more details)

However they are certainly a better option that paying Ryanair £10 per round trip ticket, and as part of the O'Leary strategy is probably to make us wonder if its just easier to pay them the fee....

That makes it worth it on its own - and we are applying for ours today!

CaxtonFX Prepaid Mastercard