I want to pay a big amount with my credit card - holiday travel for a family. Can a travel booking agent charge me with an amount (about 1% of travel amount) because i chose to pay with my credit card ?
is this allowed?plse help as I am clueless...

sorry:edited the percentage charged...only realised to late that I put in wrong percentage

10% is excessive! Find another travel agent?

Yes. It is legal, but i agree with goldtop that 10% is excessive.

They can charge a %, but i agree 10% is too much.

Shops get charged by the credit card companies a small fee for using the credit company's services to make the payment. This is normally in the region of a couple of percent I believe.

You can often see this when you have to pay a small extra fee when booking easyJet flights etc...

10% is way too much and they are trying to rip you off. Definitely go somewhere else.

It's crazy. Do you use a local credit card or the foreign one? When I used to do shopping with my SA's CC, they usuallly charged me c.a. 1-2%... but 10% it sounds way too much for my liking Using the local credit card they shouldn't actually charge anything... Otherwise I would use cash or prepayment method instead

It's better to pay for things like holidays with a credit card, as the credit card company provides some insurance if the travel company goes bust etc which you wouldn't get if you paid cash. Definitely walk away from this place and find somewhere else who does want your custom.

CC card companies charge different rates a well known American card is very high, did you offer a Swiss CC? In my experience 2-3% has been requested, as with all 10% is way over the top.

Being a reseller I can tell you that credit card payment systems add some fees to transactions. Most consumers (in my field) want to pay the lowest prices possible and when Telekurs had mentioned their fees (setup and yearly), I declined to have a credit card payment system due to the 3-5% surcharge to get back those costs for simple payment plans.

Maybe other retailers in the forum can offer their credit card fee percentages, but 3-5% additional on a tough sales market would put my sales lower than profitable.


10%, that is just their "surcharge" and may be negotiable as an honest fee. Tell them you'll pay cash and maybe they'll reduce 10% and hide the receipts.

OP should verify that this travel agent is a registered travel agent and a member of the guarantee fund. Otherwise it may be not just the 10% lost.

In some countries they will charge you an extra 2% or offer a discount if you don't use a credit card but pay by cash or bank card.

Most merchants have to pay between 2-5% for accepting credit cards. 10% is insane. You are being scammed. Try to find a good deal online.

We pay 2.6% I believe. Most budget airlines charge a small supplement for cards but 10% is (or should be) criminal - go elsewhere!

Absolutely NOT..!!

(at least for USA merchants, couldn't find any rule books stating otherwise for European mechants).


The following is taken from Visa's own merchant rules book:
source pdf file (see page 10): http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan..._merchants.pdf



and in MasterCard's rule book:
source pdf file (see 2-59 on page 133 of the pdf): http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF...anual_5_08.pdf

I don't know what the legal situation in CH is with surcharging. But with a surcharge as big as that you can/should report them to the payments system operator: VISA, MasterCard etc. there will be info on how to do this on their websites. If people are charging too much extra they may refuse to allow them to accept cards in the future. Retailers can be cut off from these payments systems just as if you told VISA that they were copying your car numbers and using them fraudulently. 10% is probably in breach of the small print of the retailer/issuer agreement and even the agreement between the retailer their bank that provides the EFTPOS equipment.

The charges made by the credit card companies on retailers is the reason why American Express is scarcely accepted in Europe - because the fees are much higher and retailers are supposed to charge the same to credit card users as those paying in cash.

When this happens to you again, everyone reading this should THREATEN to inform the operator.

May be travel agent charged you for his/her services? There is percentage,,, I've never heard of surcharge for cc use, in NY you can ask for discount if paying cash, but surcharge for cc use? strange, to say the least,,,

Easyjet charge around 25 gbp for using a credit card!! Such a rip off!

Its in the rule books, but legally not enforceable.

Technically, that's the same thing, isn't it?

Why make such a fuss about this ? Just say thank you very much and take your business elsewhere, it's not as if travel agents are difficult to find. Anyway 1% is not really such a big amount and trravel agents no longer get paid by the airline companies so they have to make revenue somewhere.

Everyone replied to 10% but it seems that you have been asked to pay only 1%. That is acceptable.