The end of Visa Electron cards with Ryanair

glanman

I feel this merits a new thread

Ryanair is to make MasterCard Prepaid cards the only form of free payment for consumers booking flights on its website, Ryanair.com.

Until now, Visa Electron cards have been the only fee-free payment method with the carrier, but from 31 December that will switch to MasterCard Prepaid cards. Visa Electron will now carry a €5 administration charge.

Ryanair claims that MasterCard Prepaid cards are more widely available across Europe, with Visa Electron unavailable in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal.

It follows news that financial services brands such as Abbey and Travelex are to discontinue their Visa Electron products in 2010. However, Halifax and Bank of Scotland (BoS) have said they will continue to offer Visa Electron cards.

Link:

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/bulletin/dailynews/article/970434/?DCMP=EMC-MarketingDailyNews

adamski8

think this is good news for most (not for people who got the electron card) if you get a mastercard prepaid card then you wont have to pay the booking fee when buying flights from ryanair and the card is available in ireland
http://ryanair.com/en/news/gen-en-301109

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (30th Nov 09) announced that it will accept the MasterCard Prepaid card as its free form of payment from 1st December and its Visa Electron promotion will end one month later on 31st December. From 1st January the Visa Electron payment card will attract a €5 administration charge while MasterCard Prepaid will become the sole free from of payment on www.ryanair.com.

The MasterCard Prepaid card is much more widely available than Visa Electron and can be picked up from financial institutions/ card issuers throughout Europe (including Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal) and online. Ryanair will accept both MasterCard Prepaid and Visa Electron as free forms of payment for all bookings during the month of December.

Our man in Havana

But will it be all prepaid Mastercards or just Ryanairs own prepaid Mastercard?

jenno86

Is this what we need so?


http://www.payzonemoney.com/

jenno86

Thanks! But too slow! :P

Someone bet you to it!

Paul Tergat

FFS

Makes my entropay account pretty redundant now.

adamski8

jenno86 wrote: »

Thanks! But too slow! :P

Someone bet you to it!

yeah i saw that as soon as i post it, my post is a more positive BA though

glanman

More from Ryanair site

Link:

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/gen-en-301109

MasterCard Prepaid now FREE payment method

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (30th Nov 09) announced that it will accept the MasterCard Prepaid card as its free form of payment from 1st December and its Visa Electron promotion will end one month later on 31st December. From 1st January the Visa Electron payment card will attract a €5 administration charge while MasterCard Prepaid will become the sole free from of payment on www.ryanair.com.

The MasterCard Prepaid card is much more widely available than Visa Electron and can be picked up from financial institutions/ card issuers throughout Europe (including Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal) and online. Ryanair will accept both MasterCard Prepaid and Visa Electron as free forms of payment for all bookings during the month of December.
EU AvailabilityCountry Electron MasterCard Ppd
Austria Y Y
Belgium NO Y
Croatia Y Y
Czech Rep Y Y
Denmark Y Y
Finland Y Y
France Y Y
Germany Y Y
Hungary Y Y
Ireland NO Y
EU AvailabilityCountry Electron MasterCard Ppd
Italy Y Y
Malta Y Y
Netherlands NO Y
Norway Y Y
Poland Y Y
Portugal NO Y
Romania Y Y
Spain Y Y
Sweden Y Y
UK Y Y



MasterCard Prepaid cards will not only provide savings on Ryanair flights but can also be used to withdraw money from ATMs and make retail purchases in shops and online.

To celebrate its new free payment method Ryanair will, from midnight (24:00hrs) tonight, release 250,000 Christmas seats for just €5 each for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in late December which must be booked on www.ryanair.com before midnight (24:00hrs) Thursday (3rd Dec).

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“We are pleased to announce our new partnership with MasterCard which will enable consumers to save even more when travelling on Ryanair’s unbeatable low fares. MasterCard Prepaid Cards are widely available across Europe from financial institutions and online.

“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. Bookings made with Visa Electron from 1st January will be subject to a €5 administration charge. Ryanair encourages all passengers to sign up to the widely available MasterCard Prepaid so that they can continue to snap up unbeatable fares such as the 250,000 €5 Christmas seats which are available on over 500 routes until Thursday.”

glanman

Bond-007 wrote: »

But will it be all prepaid Mastercards or just Ryanairs own prepaid Mastercard?

Is says mastercard prepaid cards so I would presume any mastercard prepaid card, but I'm there will be a catch!

Out of interest, I have read somewhere that Ryanair have to offer one form of no booking fee, EU makes them. is this true? If so, what is Aer Lingus fee free payment?

funnyname

How can they tell an ordinary mastercard account from a prepaid one?

glanman

funnyname wrote: »

How can they tell an ordinary mastercard account from a prepaid one?

I presume they have specific numbers the start such as bill mastercards are 1234.... and prepay are 5678.....

Open to correction but they will know!

Our man in Havana

glanman wrote: »

Out of interest, I have read somewhere that Ryanair have to offer one form of no booking fee, EU makes them. is this true? If so, what is Aer Lingus fee free payment?

Currently it is Visa Electron.

funnyname wrote: »

How can they tell an ordinary mastercard account from a prepaid one?

glanman wrote: »

I presume they have specific numbers the start such as bill mastercards are 1234.... and prepay are 5678.....

The first 6 digits tell them what type of card it is.

Do-more

Sweet FA on the Mastercard Ireland corporate website about who issues Mastercard Prepaid cards in Ireland, has anyone got a list? or at least know of one Irish issuer?

DubDani

Most shopping centers sell them as their own gift cards.

If you for example buy a Gift Card at Dundrum Town Center you will get a Prepaid MasterCard, which can be used everywhere.

http://www.dundrum.ie/gift-cards/

http://perfectcard.ie/index.html

irishgeo

they seen to be here

http://www.payzonemoney.ie/

Basq

Threads merged!

lintdrummer

You are charged at the payzone outlet to put credit on the prepaid card. It's not much, but it isn't free.

Eg. When you go to the shop and put €200 on your card you will get charged €3.50.

mocata

A Lot of those Prepaid Mastercards have tons of ancillary charges. Sometimes £5 a month dormancy or a load fee/usage fee. I appreciate they are a business, but those can add up over the course of a year to far more than the saving.

Our man in Havana

Ok these are payzones charges:

Loading your card:

Loading Amount
Fee
€10 - €350 €3.50

€351 - €500


€5.95

Shopping with your card:

Transaction Type
Fee
Online
2.95% of purchase value

Instore


2.95% of purchase value

Phone


2.95% of purchase value

ATM withdrawal charge: €1.50

No Monthly Account Fee

* If your account is inactive for over 3 months you will be charged a fee of €3.50 for every month it is inactive.

2.95% of purchase value is the real killer.

griffdaddy

yeah the 2.95% is a bit steep, but I suppose if you had this card exclusively for cheap ryanair flights then it wouldn't be a big deal, 2.95% of 10 euro isn't much. If you had a combination of this and a 3v card you could have credit card features for a reasonable overall price

snubbleste

Wonder what happened to the Ryanair prepaid Mastercard that was launched last year with an €85 annual charge and a charge per transaction of 50p/75c?

Our man in Havana

It is the 2.95% service charge and the loading fee together that is the killer.

bmaxi

Presumably Wirecard, much discussed on this forum, would be an option. I haven't used mine in a long time but as I recall the charges were nothing like Payzone.

cormie

Wirecard is the first thing to pop to my head too. Great service!

bmaxi

cormie wrote: »

Wirecard is the first thing to pop to my head too. Great service!

Are you still using yours? From what I remember I stopped using mine because of the complicated way of loading it. Is it still as complicated?

Our man in Havana

It was the complicated way of loading that stopped me from using it.

cormie

I stopped using mine because I started using the Halifax one which is just far handier considering there's a Halifax branch less than 500m from my front door, they are open till 5 and on a Saturday and the money is on your card before you even leave the bank.

Wirecard wasn't too bad, you could do it from AIB online in a matter of seconds, the only bad part was having to wait about 4 or 5 days before it showed up as available on your account. Not complicated at all once you've done it once.

Our man in Havana

snubbleste wrote: »

Wonder what happened to the Ryanair prepaid Mastercard that was launched last year with an €85 annual charge and a charge per transaction of 50p/75c?

www.ryanairprepay.com

bmaxi

That was it. I'm with Ulster bank and I couldn't do it online with them. I had to physically withdraw cash and go to the local BOI and deposit it, then even that became complicated. Still, I must revisit.
The Halifax CC is excellent but unfortunately that's Visa, so no use in this case.

Our man in Havana

You can't deposit money in BOI for Wirecard anymore.

bmaxi

Bond-007 wrote: »

You can't deposit money in BOI for Wirecard anymore.

How is it done now?

Third_Echelon

p_larkin99 wrote: »

FFS

Makes my entropay account pretty redundant now.

I have a pre-paid mastercard from Entropay:

http://www.entropay.com/prepaid-mastercard.php

Our man in Havana

bmaxi wrote: »

How is it done now?

You have to send the money to Germany direct using IBAN and BIC numbers.

okidoki987

I presume this is because Mastercard will pay Ryanair a commission?
Now have to find something to spend my Entro balance on

TheScribbler

Bond-007 wrote: »

You have to send the money to Germany direct using IBAN and BIC numbers.

Well I for one will not use the prepaid card no more than I will use Ryanair in future. The use of a phrase like 'the world's favorite airline' in their press statement should be libelous. I feel that their customer service leaves much to be desired.

Polar101

Not very surprising news, but as a Visa Electron card owner I'm not too thrilled about this. 5€ off per flight was very nice.

glanman

I presume this is because Mastercard will pay Ryanair a commission?
Now have to find something to spend my Entro balance on

This post may be the solution

Third_Echelon wrote: »

I have a pre-paid mastercard from Entropay:

http://www.entropay.com/prepaid-mastercard.php

This card has a £4.99 processing fee. I have emailed them to see what other fees they have so will update. Basically I understand it to be you lodge money to your entropay account and then transfer over to your prepay card for free...

Will update when I get a response.

Moon54

Bond-007 wrote: »

It was the complicated way of loading that stopped me from using it.

I find Wirecard very easy to load and very reasonable charges.
I usually load €300 at a time, via Bank transfer, and I only get charged €1 each time. Takes just a minute to do with AIB online with the 'reuse bank transfer' feature (takes a few days to clear, of course), but maybe other banks make it more difficult.

Basq

Gonna move this to 'Online Buying & Auctions'

Realtine

Bond-007 wrote: »

You can't deposit money in BOI for Wirecard anymore.

WHAT? I still do it through banking 365 no problems...last time was last Tuesday and it was in wirecard on Friday.

Our man in Havana

Realtine wrote: »

WHAT? I still do it through banking 365 no problems...last time was last Tuesday and it was in wirecard on Friday.

Not to their Dublin local account. You have to send the money to Germany direct.

maybe other banks make it more difficult?

They sure do.

glanman

glanman wrote: »

This card has a £4.99 processing fee. I have emailed them to see what other fees they have so will update. Basically I understand it to be you lodge money to your entropay account and then transfer over to your prepay card for free...

Will update when I get a response.

Response:

Thank you for your email.
The Plastic card should be covered under the new terms.
However Ryan Air has the right to decline the card.
You may load funds onto your EntroPay Plastic MasterCard only with your EntroPay virtual VISA card – i.e. transfer funds from your EntroPay virtual VISA card.
Once activated, EntroPay Plastic can be used immediately – you can withdraw funds from the ATM instantly.
The fee for loading is the same as a transfer GBP0.10.
There are no yearly fees.

Wait and see I suppose. To load into entropay is 4.95% or thereabouts.

K-9

Moon54 wrote: »

I find Wirecard very easy to load and very reasonable charges.
I usually load €300 at a time, via Bank transfer, and I only get charged €1 each time. Takes just a minute to do with AIB online with the 'reuse bank transfer' feature (takes a few days to clear, of course), but maybe other banks make it more difficult.

Just did that last night, very handy as I hadn't used it since last Christmas, after Wirecard changed the References.

blastman

Ryanair PR boob wrote:

“We are pleased to announce our new partnership with MasterCard which will enable consumers to save even more when travelling on Ryanair’s unbeatable low fares. MasterCard Prepaid Cards are widely available across Europe from financial institutions and online.

“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. Bookings made with Visa Electron from 1st January will be subject to a €5 administration charge. Ryanair encourages all passengers to sign up to the widely available MasterCard Prepaid so that they can continue to snap up unbeatable fares such as the 250,000 €5 Christmas seats which are available on over 500 routes until Thursday.”

I love the way it sounds like they're doing us all a favour by moving to a "more popular" system. Moving from a system used by practically no-one to one used by almost practically no-one doesn't deserve the publicity.

thesmiler

Neteller also has a prepaid virtual (+plastic for a fee) Mastercard.
You can fund the Neteller account using debit/credit card (for a fee) and using bank transfer for free and it seems using the virtual card in your account currency is free, so looks even better than Entropay.

conolan

Neteller does look better, but I've got £4.20 left on my (now useless) Entropay Visa Electron. Almost the fee for the new card (don't use it for anything except Ryanair)

k123456

re Entropay mastrecard, does anyone know if this operates in euro and if ryanair will accept the euro card, They accepted my euro Entropay Visa Electron

Our man in Havana

They will accept the Entropay Mastercard with no issues. It is operated in the same currency as your Visa card.

cairnrua

Like a lot of you I too have a balance on this card. But now have to decide to spend it as near to the allowed balance - think it's 3-4Euro to be left. Also have to keep in mind there is a cancellation fee for closing this card. Wonder is it possible to transfer the balance to one of these Pre-paid Mastercard from EntroPay and what costs would that entail? Just a few questions - ideas! Maybe best is to forget idea and just transfer back to credit card and start all over again with their Prepaid Mastercard.

k123456

According to Entropay, these are the charges
To apply for your plastic MasterCard you will be charged a fee GBP4.99/EUR7.49 but this is only once for the delivery.
Also the load fee is 4.95% and to transfer the funds to your plastic card there is a charge of GBP0.10/EUR0.15

mcaul

As a previous poster said, you can get mastercard pre paid cards as gift carsd in some shopping centres / major shops. Kildare village is another that issues them. The only charge is the €3 purchase charge.

With ryanair, you expecta catch as they always benefit financially from any change they make.

I am just presuming that as Mastercard want to make their prepaid card one of the most widely used methods of online payment on the world (taking on paypal) then mastercard must be paying ryanair a substantial sum for this change.

But who cares if it has made avoid the €5 per segment fee as easy as pie for most people.:D

I might even start liking O'leary!