How to avoid paying the Ryanair administration fee by using a prepaid MasterCard to book your flights

What is the Ryanair booking fee?

In November 2009 low cost airline Ryanair announced that it was changing its free payment method from Visa Electron to MasterCard Prepaid cards. Since 1st January 2010 using a Visa Electron to book Ryanair flights no longer circumvents paying the administration fee, also known as the booking fee, as shown in the table below.

This means that a prepaid MasterCard card is now the only way to avoid paying the booking fee when booking flights on www.ryanair.com.

Source: http://www.ryanair.com/en/questions/table-of-fees correct as of 28 June 2011
* This fee is charged per passenger/ per one way flight and relates to the costs associated with Ryanair's booking system. No administration fee applies to bookings paid for by MasterCard Prepaid Debit Card.

How does this affect Ryanair customers?

If you book tickets on Ryanair using a prepaid MasterCard card you will not incur the £5 booking fee that is normally applied to all flights. However, if you use a different payment card you will be charged £5 per person, per flight.

Essentially, this will add £10 per passenger to the cost of a return flight if you choose to
pay by debit, credit or even a prepaid Visa card. So, for a family of four, the costs
would work out as follows:

• 4 return flights
• Equates to 8 single flights
• Each of which incurs a £5 charge if a prepaid MasterCard card is not used
• Total extra cost of flights for not using a prepaid MasterCard card:
  
  8 single flights x £5 booking fee = £40

How you can avoid the paying the £5 booking charge?

The only way to avoid incurring the £5 booking fee is by paying for your flights with a prepaid MasterCard card. Read on to find out how our Multi-Currency card ensures your cheap Ryanair flights remain cheap, as well as the other benefits you get as a cardholder.

Save money when you use our Multi-Currency Card Prepaid MasterCard

Using our own Sterling Multi-Currency Card you can avoid paying the Ryanair booking fee as well as benefitting from a fantastic exchange rate wherever you use it abroad.

In the above example, using your debit or credit card to pay for four Ryanair return flights would cost £40.

With the Multi-Currency card, it would cost you just 2.99% every time you used it.

• • FREE card
• • Express Delivery in 1-2 working days*
• • No monthly fee
• • No purchase fee**

• * Terms and fees apply
• ** Minimum load required

---

Other benefits of the Multi-Currency Card

Great exchange rate* – simply load in Pounds then withdraw cash in any currency or pay for purchases when abroad. The card converts to the local currency when used and always at a great exchange rate.

*Click here to see how the Multi-Currency card compares to your standard bank card.

No commitment – there are no management fees, no credit checks and no annual fees, whether you use the card or not. You simply load money on to the card in our secure account management section then use the balance when you want to. Cards are valid for three years so you can keep funds on there until you are ready to use them. We never charge you for adding more credit either.

Click here for the full Terms & Conditions of the Multi-Currency card.

Other Fees – using the Multi-Currency card abroad is very cost effective. For example, all transactions are now charged at 2.99% which is the same rate as most debit and credit cards, however withdrawing cash from an ATM abroad no longer incurs an additional ATM fee, as of 14 June 2011. When you compare the charges and interest that accrue when using other payment cards, our Multi-Currency card really is a great way to take and spend money abroad.

Click here for full fees of the Multi-Currency card.

Security – the Multi-Currency Card is Chip & PIN secure, has a dedicated Lost & Stolen service and is not linked to your main bank account so if you lose it you just cancel the card and transfer the balance to a new one.

my Travel Cash Multi-Currency Prepaid MasterCard really is a convenient way to avoid paying Ryanair booking fees and get your travel money sorted at the same time so make sure you don’t miss out and order yours today. Plus, with Express Delivery, your card will be delivered within 1-2 working days*.

> Click here to order your Multi-Currency card.

*Fees and Terms apply

---

Published: 2nd June 2010, updated 28 June 2011
Source: my Travel Cash