Ryanair, Flybe and Monarch are overcharging customers who pay by credit card, according to claims made by consumer group Fairer Finance.
As millions of travellers jet off for summer holidays and city breaks, some airlines charge customers fees of up to 3% of ticket prices.
But Fairer Finance said a rule change in 2013 stated companies should not charge more than it costs them to process a credit card transaction.
All three airlines denied they were infringing any rules and said they set fees to cover costs.
A European ruling last year put a cap on the cost of using credit cards by limiting interchange fees charged by credit card companies to merchants to 0.3%. Additional costs should be no more than another 0.3% for big companies, suggesting a fair fee is 0.6% and that anything more than 1% is excessive, Fairer Finance claimed.
Ryanair charges customers 2% of the ticket price for using a credit card while Flybe and Monarch charge 3% to cover the costs of processing a credit card transaction.
Ryanair said Fairer Finance’s claims were false and that the airline complies with all EU rules. Flybe said its charges meet UK requirements and that it scrapped debit card fees for online payments in 2012. Monarch said fees reflected its costs and that credit card customers paying via PayPal incurred no fee.
Some insurers and local authorities also charge 2% or more for using a credit card, Fairer Finance said.
The group called on the government to put pressure on companies and other organisations over credit card fees. Trading standards officers should investigate and fine offenders and ministers should make it clear that the law will be enforced, it said.
When the cap on interchange fees was announced, the UK government said it expected retailers and other merchants to pass on the savings to consumers by cutting prices.
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 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.”
Daley said companies’ behaviour was made more stark by the actions of certain competitors. EasyJet cut its credit card fee to 1% from 2% this year while United Airlines, Air Canada and the travel company Trailfinders charge nothing.
Daley added that credit card fees harm competition by attracting customers with prices that often go up at the final stage of their purchase.
