Just read on Ryanair's website that their Visa Electron promotion

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11/30/2009 - 10:39

Just read on Ryanair's website that their Visa Electron promotion will end on 31st December and from 1st January 2010 Visa Electron payments will attract a €5 administration charge. The only 'free' way to pay will be with a MasterCard Prepaid card.

Does anyone know who offers a MasterCard Prepaid card in either the UK or Italy?

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Where does this end???This crowd(guy).............the kings of the 'no frills, rock bottom' prices have surely just about gone as far as they can.............one now has to pay THEM a fee to enable one to pay THEM to travel!!!!!!!!!Stunning!!How STUPID are 'we' to keep 'just' paying up...................vote with your feet/car/alternative.S

On the face of it the O2 card doesnt seem to work as it is a Visa card and Ryanair say it has to be a prepaid Mastercard.I agree it is v frustrating and there seems to be no way at the moment to avoid paying a fee to the card issuer (so you dont have to pay one to Ryanair).  Have spent the last hour searching for the cheapest card - difficult to determine as it depends on usage etc.That said, for us at least, Ryanair is still by far away the cheapest means of travelling to/from Italy so we will keep using them even though it wont be quite as cheap as in the past.

That Mr. O'Leary he's a one isn't he! Try this one: Cashplus prepaid gold MasterCard  www.cashpluscashback.co.ukCompared here: www.what-prepaid-card.co.uk/prepaid-gold-cards/compare-Gold-prepaid-card...Choose the  PAYG  One-off fee of £9.95. Free top-ups, no monthly fee, transaction fee of £1. Saving me £13 per Ryanair booking.I have just ordered one to use after December.Seasons bah-humbug! to you all by-the-way! Pip pip

 Just want to thank chrissnotton for the information about the Cashplus card. I have aquired one ready for any bargains that might crop up with Ryanair. Before Christmas I did manage to find Ryanair Birmingham to Pisa  in Feb for £1 per person each way with no extras to pay. I had to keep checking frequently to find this price and discovered that Ryanair change their flight prices continually, and usually when one bit goes down another bit goes up so the end price stays pretty similar most of the time. I was lucky to find my flights as they went up again next day. I am keeping the Electron card though for Jet2.

Why do they shoot themselves in the foot all the time......why no say the flights costs £ xxx and include all the charges (Booking, Chec-in. Baggage etc) and allow people to take off things like insurance and hold baggage.......you always feel ripped off when thye advertise flights for £1.00 and you realise that it will be more like £20.00 when you pay for all the hidden costs.When will he realise that £20 is still cheap and it includes all the basics that you have to have before you can get on the plane.

Our bank offers a prepaid mastercard and is part of a larger banking group: http://www.ubibanca.com/carta-sempre-prepagata And if you are a customer and introduce a younger person of age 14-29 there's a 50 euro bonus for you and a 20 euro bonus for them: http://www.ubibanca.com/play-con-play-ubi   The banks within the Gruppo UBI Banca are listed below - look for a branch near you from this link: http://www.ubibanca.com/cerca-filiale Banca Sito Banca Popolare di Bergamo www.bpb.it Banco di Brescia www.bancodibrescia.it Banca Popolare Commercio e Industria www.bpci.it Banca Carime www.carime.it Banca Regionale Europea www..brebanca.it Banco di San Giorgio www.bancodisangiorgio.it Banca Popolare di Ancona www.bpa.it Banca di Valle Camonica   www.bancavalle.it UBI Banca Private Investment  www.ubibancapi.it  UBI Banca - Unione di Banche Italiane Scpa è nata il 1 Aprile 2007 dalla fusione di BPU - Banche Popolari Unite e Banca Lombarda e Piemontese.

Has anyone any experience of using a prepaid Mastercard?  I trawled through the various providers and got more confused the more I looked at. in the end I've applied for a 'FX' one recommended by one of the money-saving sites and the fee was waived if you applied through their link. Ther's no monthly fee just a 1.5% fee for purchases.I don't know if it's the best one but I figured paying 1.5% was still a lot cheaper than Ryanair's rip-off credit/debit card fees.

In reply to by marcella

Yes. I went for an "Escape" card after researching. £10 set up fee, no payment charge, no monthly fee and a good exchange rate if paying in euros. Have saved over £100 so far using it as opposed to all the charges I would have paid using a normal credit card. FX card was my second choice - all depends on personal circumstances and useage as to which card is best. Also worth looking to book each way seperately as some of the charges are currently the same in Euros as they are in Sterling, but watch the exchange rates offered by Ryanair. Got caught out once by their automatic use. If you use one of the "good" exchange rate cards (no fixed/minimum fee) then additional savings can be made. eg 2 bags from Italy to UK - £26 instead of £30 on last trip. Main drawback is having to go through the purchase procedure/entering details and online check in twice instead of once.