We’ve been overwhelmed by your support for our surcharges campaign, which brought about a ban on excessive charges. And now five companies are changing their rules due to your reports…
Most of you know this story well. In 2011 we issued a super complaint to the Office of Fair Trading over the excessive surcharges some companies charge you for paying by card.
You signed your names, emailed a Member of European Parliament and hassled the Treasury to take action. And take action they did by passing a law banning companies from charging you more than it costs them to process a card transaction.
But since the ban came into force you’ve caught some companies we believe to be flouting the rules. The good news is that First Choice, Thomson, EasyJet and Mytrainticket have all agreed to reduce their credit card fees after our you reported them. And EasyCar has gone even further by completely abolishing its fees for credit and debit cards.
Kay’s chuffed First Choice changed its rules
Kay booked a holiday with First Choice and ended up paying £56.25p to pay by credit card. She always books her holiday with a credit card so that she can have the protection of the card company. Kay told us about a previous experience:
‘The holiday company I was using went into liquidation and I lost my money. Therefore we do not feel that we have any choice but to pay the credit card administration fee which we have always felt was rather high.’
She then told us her reaction to First Choice changing its rules:
‘I was surprised to read an article in Which? magazine advising that it might not be lawful to charge such an amount. I reported the details using Which?’s online tool. Which? contacted me to say that they challenged First Choice and the fee is going to be reduced. We are very happy with this result as holidays work out expensive enough as it is!’
But sadly it’s not all good news. There are a number of companies who we believe still aren’t playing fair. But don’t worry, eDreams, EasyBus, Vueling, Monarch, Jet2 and Germanwings are all on our hit list and we’re now referring them to Trading Standards to enforce the rules.
A huge thank you to all who have brought these charges to our attention – please keep reporting them with our tool and help us take action.