Ryanair customers warned of new fees for charge card payments

Ryanair has dealt a blow to Visa Electron customers after announcing that they will be charged a fee for paying with the card on flights booked via ryanair.com from January.

Payments with the Visa Electron cards will attract a €5 administration charge from January 1, though bookings can be made for free throughout the rest of December.

The airline says it has switched to MasterCard Prepaid as its preferred payment partner and all bookings made with the card will be free from this month. MasterCard will be the only payment card that does not attract a fee on ryanair.com.

Ryanair claims the MasterCard Prepaid card is more widely available than Visa Electron, which is not available to customers living in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherland or Portugal.

A statement issued by the airline said: MasterCard Prepaid Cards are widely available across Europe from financial institutions and online, including Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal.

""Passengers can use their MasterCard Prepaid Cards to pay for Ryanair flights from 1st December, while our Visa Electron promotion comes to an end on 31st December.""

All debit and credit cards, including MasterCard credit cards, will incur a booking fee from January.

To soften the blow (or disguise the bad news, depending on how you look at it), the airline is releasing 250,000 seats from midnight tonight for €5 each for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in late December. Flights must be booked before midnight on Thursday, December 3.

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