1.5% Credit Card Charge with www.directski.com

B

bredaghx

Guest
I recenly booked a ski trip with www.directski.com

When I went To pay my 989 euro for the package I was asked for a 1.5% fee for paying by credit card. IS this legal ??.

So they are charging 14.83 euro for paying by credit card.
They are 4 people travelling so direct ski will profit 59.84 by this little fee.

I was not made aware of this fee when booking my package.
Also when the Deposit was paid by credit card and they did not ask for a credit charge, all of sudden are they looking for a credit card charge
:mad:
 
Inform your credit card company of the charge and ask is it proper that the company (DirectSki) should be charging you for use of the credit card.

Let us know what the CC company say.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If the charge was explained up front (e.g. on the online booking form) then I think it's perfectly legal. However their booking form and terms & conditions seem to make no mention of any CC surcharge. As such it may well be questionable. Ask the [broken link removed] maybe?
 
bredaghx said:
I recenly booked a ski trip with www.directski.com

When I went To pay my 989 euro for the package I was asked for a 1.5% fee for paying by credit card. IS this legal ??.

So they are charging 14.83 euro for paying by credit card.
They are 4 people travelling so direct ski will profit 59.84 by this little fee.

I was not made aware of this fee when booking my package.
Also when the Deposit was paid by credit card and they did not ask for a credit charge, all of sudden are they looking for a credit card charge
:mad:
Click to expand...

I've just stepped through the booking process on their website, and the 1.5% charge is clearly visible on the page where I'm asked to enter CC details to pay a deposit. Are you saying that this was different when you paid your deposit?

It is a little sneaky that this charge isn't mentioned until the very end of the booking process. No mention of it in their terms & conditions or 'important information' webpages.
 
1. Yes you are correct. the 1.5% charge is stated beside the fields where you enter your credit card to pay your deposit. I was not aware of this as (It was another member of the group who actually paid the deposit.)

2. It does not mention this charge until just before you enter your credit card details. This is much to late.

3. The Credit Card Charge is not mentioned in the Terms and conditions.

4. I rang my Direct Ski and they told me that Visa had brought in a new 1.5% fee on credit card transactions in Sept. (funny thing that they introduced the fee before people start booking their ski trips) Note : I booked with Direct ski last year and the charge did not apply.

5. I also rang Visa and they said that they did not charge 1.5% fee on Directski. They also said that Directski are free to charge whatever % they want on hanling credit card. Visa have no control over what they charge.
6. I have mailed the [broken link removed] and they are to get back to me on this issue. I intend to follow it up and will keep you posted of the outcome.

:mad:
 
Re: 1.5% Credit Card Charge with www.directski.com- Reply received from ODCA

Here is the Reply I just received from the ODCA.

Our Ref: 06 / 048786

Dear Mr. Shorten,

The issue of surcharging on credit cards is not covered by legislation
in
Ireland.

This Office has been in contact with Visa International, MasterCard and
laser. These companies have rules for the operation of their respective
card schemes, which must be adhered to by all parties who participate
in
the schemes, merchants, card issuers and banks. Each company’s rules
includes a rule that prohibits a merchant from imposing a credit card
surcharge where this discriminates against customers who pay by credit
card
as against customers who pay in some other way, for example by cash,
cheque
etc. Visa International refers to their rule as the “no
discrimination
ruleâ€.

A cardholder that has a surcharge imposed on them by a merchant in
breach
of the “no discrimination rule†is entitled to complain to their
card
issuer (i.e. the bank that issued the card) and the card issuer should
take
up the matter on their behalf and seek to have the surcharge refunded
to
them. I must point out the surcharging is not illegal.

However Mastercard has recently abolished its “no discrimination
ruleâ€

Statutory Instrument 103 of 1997 allows promoters of concerts and
theatrical events to surcharge providing that they advertise the
additional
charge or notifies the customer before they pay. This is usually
applied to
online and telephone ticket bookings. Recently the travel business has
used
SI 103 to justify charging a surcharge.

The Irish banks voted against the change and they did not want the
“no
discrimination rule†abolished. The only way to prevent surcharging
is to
have the law changed to prevent it.

I hope this information is of benefit to you.
 
I didn't go as far as the CC details page. If it states the charge there then I think it's all legit. This is not too late since you have not yet paid and can decline if you don't like the charge.
 
As a Credit Card Merchant, we are charged 3.5% on all Credit Card transactions. Incidentally we don't charge our customers for paying by CC - just glad to have received payment.
 
Hi Bredaghx

This is what I figured, the CC companies DO NOT like merchants charging surcharges on their cards - though not illegal, you might let us know what the outcome is with your CC company and Directski.??
 
bredaghx said:
1. Yes you are correct. the 1.5% charge is stated beside the fields where you enter your credit card to pay your deposit. I was not aware of this as (It was another member of the group who actually paid the deposit.)
Click to expand...
In all fairness, if someone else did the original booking/deposit and failed to communicate on this issue with you, that is not Directski's problem.
 
I found that it was standard for travel agencies to have an additional cost if you paid by CC. Such a pain since by paying by CC you have extra insurance protection, as far as I know.
 
I've also booked with Directski this year and I was told that there was a 1.5% charge for paying by Visa or Mastercard, before making any deposit payments. You can make payment by Laser with no charge though, so I have transferred all money to my current account and paid by laser.

I have to also say that the savings in booking our trip with directski compared to any other provider would have more than made up for the 1.5% charge though, if I had had to pay by visa.

(for the record I'm not affiliated with directski, but have booked with them on 2 occasions and been very happy with price & service).
 
Hi

It seems to me that this "fiddle" is widespread throughout the tourism industry, with Ryanair, Aer Lingus etc also applying these charges.

Only solution here is:
* refuse to pay and seek alternatives
* lobby the appropriate government minister to take action (a load of e-mails on the same issue waiting for him / her after Xmas might be a start ;))

Cheers

G>
 
Hi,

Anthony here in Directski.com. I just wanted to provide a little bit of background why we expose our Credit Card fees.

Up to this summer, we didn't expose Credit Card fees as a separate cost so the fee remained "hidden" in the overall cost of the holiday. The result was that most of our customers used credit cards to pay for their holidays meaning that the Credit Card companies were receiving over 2% of every holiday sold.

In an effort to change customer behaviour and reduce our holiday prices, we removed the "hidden" charge and exposed it as a separate cost. The result is that, now, very few of our customers opt to use credit cards to pay for their holidays but instead use cheque, cash, bank transfer or debit card - none of which attract a fee even though they often require more administrative effort on our part.

The upshot is that, as a result of this change, our customers pay an average of 1.5% less for their holiday than they would have if we hadn't exposed the fee.

We do highlight this charge prior to booking but, occasionally, group leaders don't pass on the information to their pary members. On the back of bredaghx's comments and this thread, we will be changing our website to include mention of the fee earlier in the booking process.

Happy skiing!

Anthony
 
Hi Anthony,

Top marks to you for being willing to contribute to the conversation & publically standing over your business' practice.

I hear what your saying, but the bottom line here is that there are many many retailers, in various sectors (many of whom are on lower margins than the part of travel industry you are operating in), who are absorbing these credit card charges, so I don't think there is any reason why you should not consider doing likewise (given you will get guaranteed payment, lower admin costs, processing time before you have cleared funds etc).

Nonetheless, your suggestion that your website will be altered to highlight the options & costs associated with paying by credit card is very positive.

As I understand it, the 2% payable to the merchant services provider is open to some negotiation, so I'd suggest you consider this for the benifit of your own business... then obviously pass part of it onto your customer needless to say ;)

Cheers

G>
 
Garrett

I think you are missing the point. Why should any company absorb the charge?

It's cheaper for a company to provide a service to people who pay with their Laser Card than to people who pay with their Credit Card. If the company "absorbs" the charge, it means that the Laser Card payers will be subsidising the Credit Card payers.

On a separate point, can you be more careful in the language you use. Describing this as a "fiddle" leaves me open to defamation, not you. You can use the word "practice".

Brendan
 
Just to add, I booked a holiday with a travel agent a few years ago and when I rang up to pay the remainder after deposit I was told of the surcharge. I said I would drop in the cash to them instead. I decided to check with the CC provider and they stated that if the transaction is done over the phone or online then they would accept the practice but that if I went in personally and gave them my CC they asked me to get a seperate bill for the 1.5% and they would refund me. I did this and subsequently got the refund off the CC company promptly. For the record I agree with Anthony's post above as long as there is an option to pay in other ways. I'm not aware of being able to do this with Ryanair for instance.
 
Breda

I used to work for a travel agent who applied the same charge. Whenever a customer queried this they were obliged to issue a refund. However, your credit card company should also apply this refund.
 
Why were they obliged to issue a refund? Were they applying the charge without informing the consumer in advance?
 
Here is a update on where this issue stands at the Moment.

I am taking the ODCA advice and I have written to My Credit Card issuer and Visa. I hope that they will both investigate this charge and refund all or part of the fee. I am waiting for a response from both my bank and Visa.

I hope that I will be successful, considering that the No Discrimination Rule has been broken because I was discriminated by directski.com for paying by my Visa Card.

I am not happy with Anthony’s comments from Directski.com.
Quote "The upshot is that, as a result of this change, our customers pay an average of 1.5% less for their holiday than they would have if we hadn't exposed the fee."

This is utter nonsence. There are 4 people in our group who paid for there ski trip using a credit card. Directski.com pocketed a total of roughly 59.84 euro in total from our group because we paid by credit card.
And you are telling me that our holiday is on average 2% cheaper !!! :mad:

I find it impossible to believe that Directski.com are being charged 1.5% on every credit card transaction. It will be interesting to see what VISA and my bank will have to say about this 1.5% charge.

I would also like to point out that www.directski.com are intending to change there website to
Quote " On the back of bredaghx's comments and this thread, we will be changing our website to include mention of the fee earlier in the booking process. "
This just goes to show that there is a big problem with how they are informing their customers of this credit card charge. the customer is informed too late in the process. Much Too late...

If I do receive a refund I intend to donate it to askaboutmoney.com. Its not the the amount, its the principle of the situation. :)
 
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