Use Ryanair card or pay extra for flights

Dan Newling12 April 2012

Budget airline Ryanair is to force all its passengers to use its own branded debit card to buy flights, or pay an extra £12 a head.

From November, anyone hoping to book a Ryanair flight at the advertised price must pay using a "Ryanair Cash Passport" to avoid the extra £12 per person the Irish airline charges to issue a return flight ticket.

The Office of Fair Trading has ordered that surcharges be dropped after finding they cost Britons £300million in 2009. It warned airlines it will take them to the High Court if the charges do not stop but so far they have largely ignored the call.

Ryanair justifies its decision by saying its new card offers free withdrawals from some cash machines but admits this service may go next year. It also says it will reimburse the card's £6 application fee - but only in Ryanair travel vouchers.

Martin Lewis, of website moneysavingexpert.com said: "Ryanair is sticking two fingers up at every regulator and consumer group."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in