As I'm sure most of you are aware, Ryanair have terminated their free payment method of VISA Electron some time ago, the new free payment method being prepaid Mastercard. However these often have fees for purchase, top up, use and non use which Electron did not.
Just been past Thomas Cook, and they have a Mastercard Prepaid currency card in currencies of US$, EU?, GB, CA$, NZ$, AU$ and ZAR - the latter being mentioned in yesterday's Sun newspaper when they were talking about people travelling to the World Cup in SA.
I was thinking of getting a GB one just for booking Ryanair flights, but was wondering how it compares to other offers out there. Don't fly all that much with Ryanair, but the card fee is still annoying when I do - maybe a three return flights annually?
Basic fees for the GB card are:
2% or 3 min to load the card 1.50 ATM fee (will not be using it in ATMs though) Purchase Fee 0 If not used for 15 months there is a 2 monthly fee 10 for negative balances Use in currency other than GB is rate increased by 5.75% - do they mean (rate+5.75) or (rate+rate*5.75%)?There is no loading fee for the cards of other currencies, but I don't know what the exchange rate will be when you load the card, as you are locked in to the rate on the day when you load the card, presumably at Thomas Cook's loaded rate? Or the actual rate on the day determined by Mastercard? Any way of having Ryanair charge you in Euros if you are booking a one way flight departing a UK airport?