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A small number of airlines have been introducing or raising debit and credit card processing fees in a bid to milk customers for all they are worth before the introduction of legislation to outlaw excessive charges, according to Which?.

The new rules to ban unfair fees do not come into force until next year, allowing greedy carriers a 12 month window to make the most out of the surcharges before they are forced to change their ways. Which? estimates that airlines like Ryanair and Flybe rake in as much as £265,000 a day in card processing fees.

The consumer group found that a family of four booking a return flight costing £2,000 with the Leeds-based carrier Jet2 would have to pay administration fees of £146.59 if they chose to pay be credit card. A similar family would have to pay £48 in card processing fees if they travelled with the Irish airlines Ryanair or Aer Lingus and settled their account with a debit card.

Processing a debit card payment typically costs a merchant around 8p-20p, while a credit card transaction will usually set a vendor back around 1.5% to 2% of the transaction value.

Since the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recommended to the government that action be taken to curb excessive card fees last June, at least two airlines have started to charge their UK customers for the processing of payments. Swiss Air and Lufthansa began charging a flat fee of £4.50 to process a credit card transaction from last November.

Carriers like Ryanair apply a card charge for each leg of every journey booked, so a family of four would be hit with eight fees even if they paid for their whole trip on one card. Which? said that Flybe has increased its surcharges by 1,025% since 2004, while Ryanair has increased its card fees by 1,400% over the same period. Airlines have pulled in an estimated £65 million since the OFT first announced its clampdown last year.

Which? said it was highlighting the worst offenders in a bid to persuade them to scrap the unfair charges now ahead of the new rules coming into force.

Announcing plans to outlaw excessive card fees in December lat year, the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, said, ‘We want consumers to be able to shop around. They have a right to understand the charges they may incur up front and not be hit through a hidden last minute payment surcharge.  We’re leading the way in Europe by stopping this practice. The government remains committed to helping consumers get a good deal in these difficult times.’

{Image: Sean MacEntee}