Travel advice: How to avoid getting burned by extra credit card charges
Add to My Stories Which? is making a formal 'super-complaint' to the Office of Fair Trading about companies imposing rip-off debit and credit-card surcharges - and the consumer organisation claims that low-cost airlines are among the worst offenders.Ryanair charges a family of four booking return flights 40 to pay by debit or credit card. Yet Which? calculates that the cost to the airline would be about 20p to process the debit-card payment, and no more than two per cent of the transaction value with a credit card. 
In terms of check-in fees, step forward again Ryanair. Online check-in costs 12 on return flights - the Irish airline doesn't allow airport check-in and will charge you 40 each way to issue a boarding card if you arrive at the airport without your printed online boarding pass.Another villain is Jet2.com. On return flights, if you check in online it charges 4, or 8 if you have a bag to go in the hold; check in at the airport instead and! it will cost you 12, or 20 with hold luggage. Bmibaby, meanwhile, extracts its money from a 14 charge on return flights if you opt to check in at the airport rather than online.What to do: Travel with just hand luggage. Check your airline's weight and size restrictions for carry-on bags and stay within them - airlines are all too keen to clobber passengers who exceed limits. In terms of check-in fees, stick to booking promotional fares with Ryanair - on some, the online check-in fees are waived. Jet2.com also sometimes skips its lowest check-in fees on promotional fares. With bmibaby, clearly you should check in online - but you're not allowed to if you have luggage to check in or are travelling with an infant.Car hire
Rental firms often try to persuadeyou when you pick up the car to upgrade to more comprehensive insurancethat reduces the 'excess' (the amount you have to pay if there's damageto th! e vehicl e) to zero. Excesses on car rentals are often hundreds ofpounds. But you can pay as much as 10 a day for the additional cover.My other big bugbear is petrol. Manyfirms insist you pay for a full tank, and expect you to return it empty(which is impossible), or charge up to 40 per cent more than pumpprices if you're supposed to return with a full tank and don't.What to do: Buy in advance a much better-value stand-alone excess waiver policy - the car-hire section onwww.moneymaxim.co.uk will point you in the right direction.If given a choice, opt to be allowedto return the car with a full tank of petrol uncharged - and beforesetting off, establish where the nearest petrol station is to therental depot to refuel at the end of your trip.Country entry and departure charges
With developing countries, you canunderstand and accept them levying charges to enter and leave thecountry. What's harder to swallow is that tourists wanting to visit theUnited States - the world's richest nation - without a visa now have topay a new 9 fee under the ESTA scheme. OK, the application coversmultiple visits over two years, but still...
What to do: Try Canada instead.
Handy: There are ways to beat sneaky credit card charges - if you have the patienceRyanair is by no means the only offender. The family of four would, for example, pay 36 to 40 in card surcharges with Flybe, or 24 to 36 with bmibaby - the variation being whether you pay with a debit or credit card.As Which? points out, many airlines charge these extra fees per passenger per leg of the journey, when they have to process only one transaction. EasyJet is the good guy here - relatively speaking, at least - as its 5.50 debit-card surcharge is per booking. However, credit-card payments with easyJet incur an extra charge of 4.95 or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the greater.It's blindingly clear what's going on.By charging these separate fees to process payments, airlines are able to keep their headline, lead-in fares lower. Moreover, the fees are flaggedup near the end of the online booking process so are unlikely to put off many bookers who by that stage are psychologically committed to the purchase.There are ways to get round paying the surcharges. Airlines offer an alternative, niche method of payment that is free. This means they can present the debit and credit fees as avoidable - and therefore an acceptable omission from their basic fares.
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Flights
As well as card charges, depending on the airline there can be additional fees for priority boarding, for being able to sit with your travelling companions, for extra leg room, for booking on the phone, for a drink. But the two I find most irritating are checking in luggage and, would you believe it, checking in at all! Ryanair is the most punitive when it comes to checked-in bag fees. Per bag per return flight booked online, it charges a minimum of 30 - and up to 60 for a heavier bag for travel on ski routes, or in July and August, or any time to the Canaries.In terms of check-in fees, step forward again Ryanair. Online check-in costs 12 on return flights - the Irish airline doesn't allow airport check-in and will charge you 40 each way to issue a boarding card if you arrive at the airport without your printed online boarding pass.Another villain is Jet2.com. On return flights, if you check in online it charges 4, or 8 if you have a bag to go in the hold; check in at the airport instead and! it will cost you 12, or 20 with hold luggage. Bmibaby, meanwhile, extracts its money from a 14 charge on return flights if you opt to check in at the airport rather than online.What to do: Travel with just hand luggage. Check your airline's weight and size restrictions for carry-on bags and stay within them - airlines are all too keen to clobber passengers who exceed limits. In terms of check-in fees, stick to booking promotional fares with Ryanair - on some, the online check-in fees are waived. Jet2.com also sometimes skips its lowest check-in fees on promotional fares. With bmibaby, clearly you should check in online - but you're not allowed to if you have luggage to check in or are travelling with an infant.
Airports
Some airports - including Bristol,Liverpool and Luton - charge 3 to 4 for the privilege of using the'fast track' security lane. Many also make a tidy sum out of sellingresealable, transparent plastic bags to put liquids in to carry throughsecurity - Bristol charges 1 for four.What to do: Get to the airport in good time, and buy the bags from your supermarket, where they'll cost about a quarter of the price.Hotels
Being charged extra at hotels forbreakfast, and for VAT and other taxes, can get me worked up. But whatmakes my blood boil more than anything else is paying through the nosefor internet access. From my experience, the more you've paid for yourroom, the more likely it is that you'll have to pay extra to go online.I've just checked internet rates at a couple of five-star hotels inLondon, and 24 hours' access will cost me more than my monthlyconnection at home.What to do: Checkwhat is and isn't included when you book - and if you're threatenedwith an extra charge for wi-fi, march off to a nearby cafe, where thechances are it will be free.Car hire
Rental firms often try to persuadeyou when you pick up the car to upgrade to more comprehensive insurancethat reduces the 'excess' (the amount you have to pay if there's damageto th! e vehicl e) to zero. Excesses on car rentals are often hundreds ofpounds. But you can pay as much as 10 a day for the additional cover.My other big bugbear is petrol. Manyfirms insist you pay for a full tank, and expect you to return it empty(which is impossible), or charge up to 40 per cent more than pumpprices if you're supposed to return with a full tank and don't.What to do: Buy in advance a much better-value stand-alone excess waiver policy - the car-hire section onwww.moneymaxim.co.uk will point you in the right direction.If given a choice, opt to be allowedto return the car with a full tank of petrol uncharged - and beforesetting off, establish where the nearest petrol station is to therental depot to refuel at the end of your trip.Country entry and departure charges
With developing countries, you canunderstand and accept them levying charges to enter and leave thecountry. What's harder to swallow is that tourists wanting to visit theUnited States - the world's richest nation - without a visa now have topay a new 9 fee under the ESTA scheme. OK, the application coversmultiple visits over two years, but still... What to do: Try Canada instead.
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