Winter blues got you down and yearning for a lil trip away? You might want to hold off booking airfares until spring has officially sprung.
From this Thursday, September 1st onwards, airlines will no longer be able to slug you with those ridiculous, exorbitant credit card processing fees at checkout, thanks to new rules on surcharges coming into effect.
The Reserve Bank of Australia changed regulations for card providers four years ago, putting the kibosh on excessive surcharges that slugged Australian consumers with an extra $1.6billion annually.
But it’s only now that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been granted the extra powers necessary to enforce the ban, meaning that from Thursday onwards, airlines (among others) will no longer be able to hit you with huge, flat, credit card “processing” fees.
Jetstar and Tiger, for example, currently hits travellers with a flat rate of $8.50 per passenger for all domestic routes. Virgin Australia charges $7.70 per passenger for domestic flights, $10 for flights across the Tasman, and $30 for international flights.
The new regulations means airlines will only be able to charge 0.% on debit card transactions, and between 1.0-1.5% for credit cards.
Qantas has already adopted the new regulations, moving from a flat $7 fee for domestic flights and $30 on international routes, to a uniform 1.3% surcharge. The floating charges are also capped at $11 on domestic, and $70 on international.
This means that, at least for Qantas, you’ll be paying a processing charge of $3.90 on a $300 flight, for example.
Virgin has confirmed that it will comply with the new regulations, though it has yet to disclose exactly what percentage they will be charging.
It’s not just airlines who’ll have to pull their socks up under the new regulations, either. Major ticketing companies, a perennial offender on-par with airlines, will also have to comply with the rules. This means that buying tickets to sporting events or major concerts will no longer carry outrageous transaction fees at the point of purchase.
The bottom line to all of this? From Thursday onwards, buying airfares or tickets will see a few extra dollarydoos stay in your pocket. And that ain’t a bad thing at all as far as we’re concerned.
Source: Business Insider.
Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty.
