Credit Card Fees Uncovered
Written by TimAs part of our ongoing effort to put the customer first you now have the option to display prices including any credit card fees that are charged by the car park providers. Here’s a screen shot of what you might see on the availability screen excluding credit card fees:
Prices shown EXCLUDING credit card fees along with recommended car park provider.
And including the car park providers credit card fees…
Prices INCLUDING credit card fees
Not only has the price changed but the recommended provider for the Qpark car park has now changed from BCP to APH who currently offer a flat rate charge of 99p for credit card transactions.
Why show credit card fees?
Well for a start, nearly 50% of you have paid for your airport parking or hotel with a credit card so it makes sense to show any “charges” imposed by the car park provider BEFORE you reach the payment page.
Some of you prefer using a credit card for its added protection, or simply to stretch your budget over a longer period – particularly important during the present “credit crunch”.
Cancellation charges
We also compare and rank our airport parking providers based on any cancellation charges. Needless to say those with no or minimal charges come out more favourable than those that impose higher fees!
How much do credit card fees actually cost?
The reason some companies charge fees for using credit cards is because they actually get charged themselves by the credit card companies. In general, any company that does not charge a fee for using a credit card, absorbs the fees somewhere else along the line.
In some instances, if a car park provider has a minimum credit card charge, this could account for a reasonable percentage of the overall booking cost especially in the case of low value bookings. As an example, a credit card fee of £1.50 imposed on a booking of £17.00 adds around 9% to the overall cost of the booking.
Tags: charges, credit card, credit card fees, fees, hidden costs
