Flybe, Monarch and Ryanair are among the airlines accused of charging passengers too much for paying with a credit card.
Consumer group Fairer Finance, which has launched a campaign to scrap charges for credit or debit card payments, named the three airlines along with Flight Centre in the top 5 ‘worst big companies’ for card charges.
Flybe and Monarch charge 3 per cent when paying by credit card, Ryanair and Flight Centre 2 per cent, Norwegian Air 1.99 per cent and Virgin Atlantic 1.50 per cent.
The airlines argue they are necessary to reflect the cost of processing payments. "Monarch's credit card surcharges are set to cover all of the related costs incurred by the company associated with taking payment by credit card," the airline told the BBC.
"When booking a flight at www.monarch.co.uk, charges are added to the total price of the booking and clearly itemised in the running total from the moment a customer select flights, right up to point of payment."
Ryanair said: "These claims are false. We fully comply with all EU regulations and our credit card charge reflects the cost of processing credit card payments, including bank charges."
A Flybe spokesperson said the airline is "fully compliant with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Guide 'Consumer Protection Regulations March 2012' that very clearly explain the allowable costs that can be recovered through a payment surcharge".
However, Fairer Finance argue many other companies including United and Air Canada have scrapped these charges altogether while others such as Easyjet have reduced them from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.
Costs for accepting credit cards vary. But new European rules, which came into force last December, cap the "interchange fee", which is the largest part of the cost. For credit cards, interchange fees are now capped at 0.3% - with industry experts suggesting that additional costs should amount to no more than an extra 0.3% for large companies.
Finance Fairer said that should mean that consumers are being charged no more than around 0.6% by large companies - and certainly no more than 1%.
James Daley, managing director of Fairer Finance, said: "Taking people's money is a basic part of doing business. In our view, companies should not be charging consumers anything for that. However, if they choose to charge for accepting credit card payments - in spite of the strong public sentiment against these charges - then the rules make it very clear that they can only pass on the cost.
"We believe there are hundreds of companies in breach of the regulations - but no one is policing this issue. Trading Standards teams across the country need to be investigating culprits in their area and fining those who don't reduce their fees. We'd also like to see Ministers make it clear that transgressions of the rules won't be tolerated.
"Given that many companies in Europe already have a total ban on these types of charges, it's hard to see how companies can justify them. They distort competition as customers often can't see the total price until they have reached the payment screen. That's why we're launching a new campaign to do away with these charges once and for all,” said Daley.
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