P&O Credit Card Charge

[Bill Ord]

I booked a return ferry ticket on line yesterday leaving March 14 with P&O from Dover Calais the total cost on screen was £68.75. When I submitted the quote for payment the cost came up as £70.75.

No where during the booking process did I see any mention of supplements or additional charges. I e-mailed P&O to query the extra £2 and was told that it was a credit card charge. Fortunately I had used a debit card and e-mailed P&O of this and I have now been refunded the £2. It's the first time I've ever had credit card charge with P&O when booking on line. I went back to their web-site and read their conditions and it does say that a charge of unspecified amount will be made for credit cards and payment by cheque but I can not see any mention of it on the booking page. Two pounds is a relatively small sum but I believe it should be made clear at the booking stage that an option to pay by debit card will not result in a charge. Hope this helps but I'm inclined to think that you'll have to do what I've just done to get a refund as it appears that at first sight the web site doesn't differentiate between credit and debit Visa cards.

 

Bill Ord

 

[Guest Frank Wilkinson]

I use the trainline.com regularly for my trips to London and recently it imposed a similar charge, £2.50 I think. Naturally I use my debit card now for which there is no charge. This firm does at least make it clear before you pay that there is a surcharge.

It does exasperate me though as I'm a retailer and would never dream of surcharging my clients for using a credit card. I've managed to get my credit card provider down to around 1% and I'm pretty sure that a company the size of P & O will be on as good a deal or a fraction less.

Thetrainline.com is a bit steep I think as the average ticket price must be well under £100, so assuming it is £100 it is making an extra profit on every transaction.

P & O may not make a profit if its card cost is a fixed £2.00 as ferry tickets are probably a lot higher but, in my opinion, charging for credit cards is petty and greedy. They are now a fact of life and companies should cost them in to their prices.

What people may not realise is that, if you pay a retailer a bundle of cash his bank will charge him for the privilege of handling it. I can't remember my rate as we pay all cash into the Girobank, which is cheaper, but Barclays used to charge me 50p for every £100 of cash banked. So companies such as P & O will still have to pay a charge if you were to send them pound notes but it would never think of charging you extra for paying by cash, so why should it for paying by card?

[Terrytraveller]

Norfolkline started to make a CC surcharge of £4 last year as well as a hidden fuel charge, it was not advised on their web site at that time. Now they advise of the charge before the booking form is requested.

 

I remember Petrol stations started the same surcharge on CC, after a couple of months of people boycotting those petrol stations, they had notices displayed stating that no CC charges were made when buying petrol, so trade had suffered.

 

Its so easy to email them these people and let them know that you are cheesed off with what you think is a rip off, and will travel with another ferry operator, if their all up charges are more competitive. I did this with Norfolkline, if more people express their dissatisfaction with the operator, maybe things will alter.

 

Regards Terry

[tonyishuk]

On a credit card, if there is a problem with non delivery of goods or services, the CC company will investiage and either refund, of chase the company on your behalf. AND a month to pay !

 

I do thank Barclay Card for their services in this respect on a few occasions.

 

Does a direct debit card offer such services, one the money has instantly gone from your account ?

 

 

 

[chas]

I think that is one of the good reasons of using a credit card for the fact if the company goes bust or fails to deliver what was promised, you can claim the money back off the credit card company, it is still a sly way of charging a customer extra though. chas

[Guest Frank Wilkinson]

It's a good point about the credit card protection but when dealing with organisations such as P & O and thetrainline.com it's pretty irrelevent in my opinion.

Having said that I would certainly recommend using a credit card for the purchase of goods and services from an unknown source.

The credit card company however, will only reimburse you when you've exhausted the normal channels with the supplier and got nowhere.

There is no such protection with a debit card and the money comes from your account almost immediately. Think of it as writing a cheque that is processed a lot faster.

[Bill Ord]

I have e-mailled P&O asking them to make the charge clear and to also make clear that there is no charge for debit cards, I'll post to let you know the outcome if I have one before I leave on March 14, I'm considering a call to trading standards as I believe you should know how much you you are being charged before you commit to purchase.

 

Bill Ord

[Keith T]

Regrettably this is now almost normal practice - though mostly you do get a note of this on the booking form if not earlier....Brittany Ferries is £3. per bookin gon Credit Cards, whilst Debit cards are no surchagre.

However, although slightly 'off topic' this is not the rip-0ff which the Theatres and Cocnert Venues charge.....for example Bristol Colston Hall charges an extra £1 per ticket (meaning if effect about 5% in reality on a £20 tickets) PLUS 75p 'handling chrage, and many London venues can be up to £10 or more above the actual ticket price. mIf you try toc all for telephone bookings then its always a 'premium-rated' 0870 number with a long wiaiting time listeneing to rubbish to generate extra income for them.

We now almost always wait until we get to London then go direct to the box office and pay the actual price of the seat ticket with NO surcharges at all.

[Basil]

It is covered on step 4 of the P&O online booking form 'Passenger Info' where you have to physically tick that you have read and understood their conditions of booking, so I don't believe that you are being fair. If you just tick something to say you have read something you haven't then you only have yourself to blame. I was fully aware when I looked to book and was also made aware at the time of the possibility of a fuel surcharge.

That was also one of the selling points of the Caravan Club offer that both these were waived for members.

 

Bas

[messerschmitt owner]

Terrytraveller - 2007-03-08 7:39 PM

 

Norfolkline started to make a CC surcharge of £4 last year as well as a hidden fuel charge, it was not advised on their web site at that time. Now they advise of the charge before the booking form is requested.

 

 

Regards Terry

I've booked Norfolkline to go to the Nurburgring in July - was surprised to find I could have taken the 7.5m motorhome on (in July on a Friday, returning on a Sunday) for all of £29 each way plus surcharges (£72 in total).

 

Frankly, who cares about the £4 surcharge when the price is so cheap to take something so big at a peak time!