Goodbye Credit card charges.

It is the moment you have all been waiting for. As of the 13th of January 2018 there will be no more credit card charges when booking your holidays saving some customers hundreds of pounds while giving you that extra protection of paying on a credit card. As well as this people who get rewards for paying on a credit card will now not get these rewards. Until now, fees for paying with plastic – most commonly a credit card – have been routinely levied on everything from low-cost flights and tax bills to cinema tickets and takeaway meals. Many small shops and businesses also imposed a fee. Sometimes it was an extra charge of perhaps 1% or 2%, while in other cases it was a flat fee, which could add as much as 15% to 20% on to the bill. But the ban taking effect from Saturday ends all that, and means you can’t be penalised for choosing to pay by card, whether it’s online or in store.  Since this ban has come into affect some cruise companies as well as other companies are finding different ways to get round this but either hiking up the price or adding on an handling fee instead. It sounds to me it is the same thing just different wording. Some people will actually be worse off. Some of you may ask why there needs to be a fee at all??  ” When you choose to pay via credit or debit card, either in a shop or online, the retailer has to pass a percentage of your money on to the company which organises the payment – usually either Mastercard or Visa.Some of that money is then forwarded to your bank via an ‘interchange fee’, which the bank uses to fund the cost of issuing your card and managing your electronic payments, and to the processor who owns the technology platform used to transfer the money.”At the moment at cruse,co,uk we have neither increased the cost or have we added on a handling fee which makes now a great time to start looking at your next cruise. We will monitor the situation over the next few months however at present we have no plans to make any changes.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. would paying on a credit card put you off from booking something?