Customers who book tickets with budget airline Ryanair with their Visa Electron card will face paying an additional charge as of 1^st January 2010. In the past customers have not had to pay extra when using the card to book tickets. Now if customers wish to avoid a charge they will have to use a Mastercard Prepaid card if they want to avoid Ryanair’s £5.00 administration fee.

At the moment airlines have to offer at least one free payment option to customers if they want to avoid increasing the headline prices on adverts for their services. If they do not have the option of buying a ticket that does not involve the addition of an administration charge then they have to display this fact to their customers when they advertise their fares. The Advertising Standards Authority states in its rules that all non-optional fees included in a ticket’s price must be included in the headline price.

At the moment Visa Electron holders are not charged a fee when they book with budget carriers such as Easyjet, Flybe, BMIbaby, Aer Lingus and Ryanair.

Mastercard Prepaid cards need to be topped up before they are used and although customers are not subjected to credit checks in order to obtain one they may be subject monthly charges, a fee for making the card operational and charges when money is withdrawn.

According to the U.K. Cards Association around 1.7 million people already own a prepaid card from either Mastercard or Visa. Stephen McNamara from Ryanair points out that such cards are readily available throughout Europe.