Ryanair have a free flights offer running at the moment which expires today (21st November). Of course they whack on a credit card charge of €5 per journey when booking with a standard credit card.
There is an exception however. If you book with a Visa Electron they will waive the credit card booking charge, which means that you will be paying €0.01 per flight including all charges.
I rang around a few of the Irish banks (AIB, BOI, Halifax, Permanent TSB) and none of the banks offer a visa electron card. I was determined to see if I could get my hands on an electron because I wanted to book in bulk a series of about 30 flights. 15 return trips, 30 x €5 = €150. Which could come in handy with Christmas coming up.
A bit of research and a few emails to some helpful people and I found EntroPay who provide virtual visa credit cards but crucially they are recognised as Visa Electron cards by Ryanair.
An Entropay Virtual Credit Card
- Sign up for EntroPay but make sure that your chosen account currency is GBP (This is because your card will not be recognised as a Visa Electron if you choose EUR). Postal code is required so type in EIRE or some random postal code.
- Use your regular credit card to fund the account.
- Activate the account using the activation email that they send you.
- You will need to load at least €10 on to the account from your existing credit card, they also take a 4.95% commision, so it will cost €10.50.
That’s it (Well almost, see appendum below), you should be able to log on and get your new visa electron credit card details. Make sure that you choose Visa Electron when booking your flights with Ryanair and you will only pay €0.01 for your flight.
Appendum: EntroPay are now asking for you to email them identification once you have registered, this is because Sterling (GBP) is not the currency of Ireland. if you have any questions then the best thing to do is drop the EntroPay guys an email they are very nice and they responded to all my questions very quickly.
Here is what a one cent flight booking confirmation looks like!
86 responses so far ↓
Jimmy sullivan // November 21, 2008 at 3:20 pm
genius
Paul Egan // November 24, 2008 at 3:52 pm
If this works I know a lot of people who’ll want to buy you a pint !
bargainsireland // November 24, 2008 at 5:05 pm
It works but I’m more of a whiskey drinker actually! :p
Tight Cavan Man // November 25, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Thanks for this. You are a star.
Paul // November 26, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hi
thanks very much for the info, couple of questions for you, hope you can answer them
1 why choose GBP and not EUR, is it because in Ireland Visa dones’t have the Electron card?
2 In the mail about Uk address what did you say as the reaon was? did you explain it was for Ryanair bookings.
Thanks for the hint.
bargainsireland // November 26, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Hi Paul,
1. I have not tried it but I have been informed that if you choose EUR as your currency then the card will be recognised as a standard Visa and not a Visa Electron.
2. No, they asked me for a scan of my passport and a scan of my credit card with the digits blocked. I emailed it to them and they activated my account 20 minutes later.
Bypass the Ryanair Credit Card Charge | Irish Internet Entrepreneur - Smemon // November 26, 2008 at 9:03 pm
[...] this man deserves all the credit for this tip, i’m simply spreading the word [...]
How to book a Ryanair flight without paying credit card charges | le craic // November 27, 2008 at 11:06 am
[...] Bargains Ireland looks to have found a way to bypass the credit card charges when booking a Ryanair Flight. [...]
Darragh // November 27, 2008 at 11:11 am
Well done, great work and even better for sharing!
Paul // November 27, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Thanks just saved me €40 on CC charges. I think Iwill need to send you that bottle of whiskey
Doh // December 11, 2008 at 9:50 am
I like this idea,BUT, the exchange rate! end of trading yesterday “The euro reached 87.80 pence sterling earlier today,” As we’re talking about very small savings on each flight, a disadvantageous exchange could easily eat up savings, and have always found the UK banking institutions very good at gouging on ex. rates.
bargainsireland // December 11, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Doh: I don’t understand your point?
If you’re paying €0.01 for a flight then how are you going to get hit by the exchange rate?
Niall // December 14, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Anyone know what to enter when using the card to pay for aer lingus flights:
Cardholder First Name *
Cardholder Family Name *
Cathal // December 15, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Excellent descriptive article…could have saved myself €18+ last week on Ryanair tickets…but saved that to-day using the card….I wonder how much longer Ryanair will not charge for the use of this card though??
bargainsireland // December 15, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Cathal — Thanks! I don’t know the answer to your question but I do know that Ryanair can’t advertise ‘Free Flights’ unless it is possible to book a flight without paying a credit card charge. I would expect Ryanair to continue offering at least one card that doesn’t incur a booking fee.
I also know that Visa have entered into an arrangement with Ryanair to encourage use of the Elecron card. I presume that Ryanair get a small kickback from Visa on each flight booked with an Electron.
Niall // December 16, 2008 at 9:22 am
Taken from the ryanair website:
Visa Electron – As a special offer to Visa Electron card holders, Ryanair, for a limited period only, will not apply a Debit Card charge
Limited time only looks like it could be pulled at any time
Fluffy links - Friday January 2nd 2009 « Damien Mulley // January 2, 2009 at 5:02 am
[...] Meanwhile Bargains Ireland tell you how to get around those Ryanair chargecard stings. [...]
garypigott // January 2, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Still, EntroPay could be a nice alternative to 3V for online transactions. 3V charge €2.50 – €5.00 for every cash transfer, which encourages bulk lodgements, and each lodgement creates a new card number, so eventually you end up with lots of “cards” with a few quid on each.
Jamie Lee // January 5, 2009 at 1:59 pm
There is another way around the credit card charges, and depending on the cost of your flights, could save you a bit of money.
I recently booked return flights to paris for £20.02. Credit card charges on top of this doubled the price.
However, if you pay in Ryanair Gift vouchers, there is no charge.
And there is no charge to buy these e-vouchers by credit / debit card! The only problem is they only do them in £25 multiples, and you do not get any change from them if you use less. Altogether , I ended up saving £15 , by paying for a £20 flight with 1 voucher, and not credit card.
Definietly worth a look into!
Neel // January 8, 2009 at 1:42 pm
thanks, If I get the virtual card in GBP and pay for tickets in Euros on Ryanair, I guess Visa converts that into GBP before deducting from my account.
Shekhar // January 14, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Does Entropay work with aer lingus?
Karina // January 15, 2009 at 10:36 am
thanks for the tip and keep up the good work!
Dorts // February 2, 2009 at 10:14 am
signed up 4 this today, gr8 job and easy.
A note on the Gift Vouchers also, did this at the weekend, works perfectly, only thing is that the minimum is £25 or €25, so if your flights are very low, u could be spending a lot more, than you would with the card above. Also they say they will email you the voucher in 24 hours, I just copied the voucher number and pasted it into the box when booking. I waited for apporx 10 mins, before making the booking after the purchase of the vouchers. Hope it lasts!!!
Eoin Campbell // February 2, 2009 at 11:25 am
Note that the voucher is non-transferable, as the named recipient must be the lead passenger.
Also, the maximum voucher value is € 50, and a maximum of 4 vouchers can be used to book a flight, so if the total flight cost is over € 200, you have to pay the balance by credit card, defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.
If booking for more than 1 person at a time, then its hard to keep the total below this limit.
Ryanair being ripped off on Credit Card Charges « PuddleDucks Blog // February 8, 2009 at 8:18 am
[...] 2. Buy an EntroPay card (select GBP as the currency) and use this when paying for flights on the Ryanair website. It is seen as a Visa Electron card which does not attract credit card charges. You pay around 5% commission for the use of the card – a lot less than the charges imposed by Ryanair. The process is described in detail on the Bargains for Irish Consumers blog here. [...]
Eoin // February 12, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Is there a 4.95% ‘load fee’ every time you want to add money to your EntroPay account? Or just the first one?
Richard // February 17, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I had assumed a Ryanair credit card would be exempt from the charge, but I see I am wrong. But with your suggestion, do we still have to pay a €30 annual fee to entropay ? At least with my tesco visa I get “rewarded” by Tesco for using the card. Thanks
father roneo sensini // February 22, 2009 at 2:09 pm
“Use your regular credit card to fund the account.”
question: i dont have a credit card proper, i.e. i only have a 3V card for cc transactions – is there an alternative to providing cc details to fund the account!
PS: thanks a mil for highlighting this
father roneo sensini // February 22, 2009 at 2:19 pm
cancel that query, they accept Laser/ Maestro – bingo!
bargainsireland // February 22, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Neel — Yes
Eoin Campbell — Thanks for the info, you could also simply book separately for each person.
Eoin — Yes, there is a 4.95% ‘load fee’ every time you add money to your entropay account. It is 3.95% if you top up via bank transfer
Richard — No, there is no annual fee.
father roneo sensini — Never knew they accepted Laser, that’s a win! They also accept bank transfers.
margaret // February 23, 2009 at 12:32 am
Looks like Ryanair wins. no matter what you do you still have extra charges with load fees and no refund on using ryanair gift vouchers. It all seems too much like hard work.
margaret // February 23, 2009 at 12:34 am
sorry i meant to say that if you dont use up the all of the gift voucher amount it is not refunded. That does not seem fair.
Gary // February 23, 2009 at 8:47 am
hi mate
I put my name down as the cardholder by mistake instead of ‘ENTROPAY’. The transaction went through and the money was debited form my card. Do you think its ok?
bargainsireland // February 23, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Gary — If you get a confirmation from Ryanair then everything is ok!
Justin Mason // February 24, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I presume if you do this, you lose the ability to charge back the transaction if things go pear-shaped with your flight? That freedom is a key feature of credit card use IMO…
Fiona // February 28, 2009 at 5:07 am
iv been tryin to register for entropay, it keeps sayin system error, i put my dublin address and eire as post code, is that how i do it, i need to book b4 sunday night, if i can use my laser to top up card can i buy flights when i register and load card or do i have to wait for card and pin to b delivered to my home address? god this is such hard work
Fiona // February 28, 2009 at 3:20 pm
ok in the end i went and got the ryanair gift card, the flights are 100 euro so two vouchers is handy and i dont waste anything, but upon signing up for entropay first i came by loads of “system errors” but its finally gone thru, im stuck now on stage 3 adding a card, i decided to add my 3v details cuz i cudnt see anything for bank transfer or laser (my laser doesnt have the cvv code like) but yeah like i said, im stuck, there doesnt seem to be any other options, now that iv added the card(it was accepted) ive got to load the entropay card now ( it lasts for a year seemingly) but just want to know where the hell i go to do bank transfer to them,… anyone got any pointers?
bargainsireland // February 28, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Hi Fiona,
I’ve just checked the EntroPay site and although I saw the bank transfer option advertised, I could not access it. It definitely used to be available before.
I’ve logged a ticket with their support team, I’ll post a comment when they get back to me.
bargainsireland // February 28, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Fiona — It is a virtual credit card therefore it is activated immediately and you don’t actually receive a physical credit card.
fiona` // February 28, 2009 at 5:09 pm
sorry, totally retarded when it comes to these kinds of things, yeah cudnt find the bank transfer tab, and each time i log in now it brings me straight to the last stage of my registering process, so i dont even have a chance to access it from elsewhere…
lost my damn laser card today… hoping its somewhere in the house but yea it means i cant now even use my laser to top up..
hoping my ryanair gift card confirmation comes thru soon.. then i can book my cheapo flights 
bargainsireland // February 28, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Fiona, Bank transfer is back up:
EntroPay Cards › Load Card › Choose ‘Bank Account’ from the dropdown menu.
If you’re having problems then try contacting EntroPay’s support team by email, their very helpful!
fiona` // March 1, 2009 at 11:56 am
hey, im gunna leave it for now, im sure it works for ebay tho
i booked my flights with the gift vouchers, no cc charges, it worked out really well the confirmation email came 6 hrs later max of 24 hrs 
ur deadly, thanks for all d help
xx
Pa // March 11, 2009 at 9:12 am
Hi,
If I get one of these cards will I be liable for the Irish Revenue €40 card levy?
pat patterson // March 18, 2009 at 8:34 pm
You don’t need to wait for the confirmation e-mail for the ryanair gift vouchers, just write down the voucher numbers and you can use the straight away
bargainsireland // March 18, 2009 at 11:42 pm
@Pa — Nope, it’s a virtual card from the UK so you’re not liable for any charges from the Irish Revenue.
Olivier // March 30, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Cannot get Ryannair to reconize my EntroPay virtual VISA as a Visa Electron……..
WW // April 10, 2009 at 3:38 am
Just tried it today and it still works great – brilliant tip, thanks! What an absolutely delightful feeling to finally be able to screw back O’Leary & all his nonsense charges! I did encounter one minor hickup in the procedure, though: after hitting Enter to confirm payment (using cardname “ENTROPAY USER” as shown in the example), the Ryanair site did some thinking and then came back with message “Your session is locked”. No idea why, nor what it meant, but the important thing is: my booking got through just fine and I received an instant confirmation by email as usual. After closing the ’sessionlocked’ window and opening a fresh one to ryanair, the ‘locked’ state initially persisted, but after some 10-15 minutes the lock had apparently expired and everything Ryanair worked fine again. (The hickup may also have been due to me working on a Mac + Safari…)
alex // April 20, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Hi.
When I transfer money to my virtual visa card from an Irish account, is that instant or how long does it take till I can actually use the money?
Thanks,
Alexandra
Samson // April 21, 2009 at 11:27 am
wow, this is soooo cool! thanks!!
Richard // May 5, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Thanks, a friend just asked me to book a Ryanair flight for her and I was just about to pay when I remembered this information. Checked it out, and I was up and running immediately. Now I’ll be all setup for the next flight. Wow, those baggage charges keep going up don’t they? I convinced my friend to bring cabin luggage only. We’ll all be traveling light soon.
Mike // May 21, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Ryanair has just added a €5 online-checkin fee. Good bye to the 1c flights.
FYI: I added an irish address to the EntroPay’s account in Sterling and they asked me for a proof of identity, copies of my credit card AND a bank statement for proof of address.
fAzI // June 3, 2009 at 9:13 am
Hi.
Just brilliant idea
Thanks for this.
Kobbisco // June 6, 2009 at 12:59 am
Hi all,
I set up an entropay account a couple of hours ago. However, I cant seem to go past the “Funding Details” step. I’ve tried adding my credit card details like a 100 times and it still keep saying “Action not allowed” “Your account has not been set up yet”. whats that supposed to mean??? Thanks everyone!
naz // June 11, 2009 at 2:16 pm
thank u so much! it worked! return flights booked, no extra charges paid! wicked !
Michael // June 11, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Brilliant!!
Richard // June 11, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Thanks, I just used my own first €1 flight and all worked well (Dublin-Luton). Mike, I’m not sure about the €5 online check-in fee, but I just (Friday 12 June, 12:15am) bought more flights for August, for £2 each, using entropay electron visa, no taxes and charges, I didn’t pay any on-line check-in fee. Trouble is, now everyone is bringing on as large as possible carry-on luggage, there’s hardly any room in the overhead lockers!
bargainsireland // June 11, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Yes, Ryanair don’t charge for online check-in (or any other non-optional charges) on promotional flights.
Also remember that you can store luggage under the seat which is very handy and means you can easily access stuff from your bag during the flight.
Richard // June 12, 2009 at 11:23 am
Ah, just found it (before I saw the last post) on Ryanair website… “Ryanair will remove its £10/€10 airport check-in fee and introduce a £5/€5 online check-in fee per person, per flight, on new bookings, other than promotional fares (fares of “Free”, “€1” and “€5” will include web check-in on a free of charge basis)”… So they’re the ones to look out for.
Richard // June 12, 2009 at 11:26 am
Clarification: Flights I referred to were £2 return
Richard // June 12, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Sorry to hog this forum, but I’ve been checking flights to ome for someone, and there are some free flights & some @ €4.99 which still have charges, e.g. Thu, 3 Sep 09
Regular Fare
Depart:
Rome (Ciampino) 10:50
Arrive:
Dublin 12:55
1 x Adult 0.00 EUR
Fare: 0.00 EUR
Online Check-In: 5.00 EUR
Taxes / Fees: 22.44 EUR
Total Price: 27.44 EUR
Still an excellent price, mind
Richard // June 13, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Sorr! That should read flights to Rome
Manifest // June 30, 2009 at 9:44 am
thanks for the tip and keep up the good work!
Noirin // July 2, 2009 at 11:09 am
SUPER SUPER SUPER, YOUR A GENIUS….
loulou // July 17, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Be very careful with your hand baggage tho’ , and read all the small print..They are so strict. On recents flights, I saw 2 girls with weekend cases, which were the correct size, but they also had small handbags on their shoulders. They were told at the boarding gates to put the hand bags inside the case, and they couldnt fit them in, so had to pay €30 each to check in their cases. There was also a man travelling with a child..the child had no hand luggage, and the fathers bag was slightly larger than the dimensions allowed. He also had to pay €30. He and his child could have brought 2 smaller bags, but not 1 (slightly) bigger. The flight was only half full too when we got on, so it wasnt like there was even a problem with space..!!
Declan // July 18, 2009 at 9:33 am
Brilliant! Just opened an Entropay account as per instructions. No hassle. Took 5 mins max. Now we have just booked return flights to London for €1 each way. You are a genius!! Keep up the good work.
Como evitar la comision al pagar con VISA en la página de Ryanair [ENG] // July 19, 2009 at 9:31 pm
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Miguel // July 19, 2009 at 11:22 pm
HALIFAX does offer you Visa Electron!
bargainsireland // July 20, 2009 at 9:54 am
@Miguel — I may be wrong on this but I believe that Halifax Ireland offer a type of Visa debit card but it can not be used on ryanair.com as a Visa Electron.
Jill // July 28, 2009 at 3:16 pm
hi, you put in EIRE as postcode but still fill in your normal irish address yes?
Jill // July 29, 2009 at 2:24 pm
entropay now telling me they cannot accept maestro/laser for loading money, they hope to fix that prob in a few months!! Trying to set up a bank transfer, looks like your first load has to be by card, then transfer after that.
yaniczka // August 1, 2009 at 2:47 pm
thank you so much for a great tip! btw i opened euro account and it works as vise electron too
Robert // August 3, 2009 at 12:18 am
Followed this tip today. Many thanks.
I chose a Euro account and I managed to use this as an Visa Electron CC on Ryan Air saving me a little over €19 on their bizarre CC Processing Fee.
John // August 4, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Just booked my ryanair flights and used entropay…excellent, very user friendly…thanks a bunch…
Richard // August 4, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Seems straightforward enough to get Entropy’s Visa (Virtual Card), but then the prompt to also get a real plastic card (Mastercard) led to a request for email of very sensitive bank and passport details. Doesn’t sound too secure to me.
Richard // August 4, 2009 at 7:41 pm
By the by, just put in your county name as the postcode. It works. At least it did for me. Laois, Kerry, Cork, etc. Good work, guys. Thank you.
Marc // August 5, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Tanks alot…worked a treat though left mine in Euro and not a problem on the Ryanair website…
Pedro // August 5, 2009 at 4:37 pm
hello,
I’m from Portugal. Could I open an entropay account and put in EIRE as postcode?
kind regards
Dinis Quelhas // August 11, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Hi Guys,
the website http://visa-electron.co.uk/ has a list of banks in the UK that issue Visa Electron cards and a list of low cost airlines that don’t charge any fees on Visa Electron cards.
Hope this helps,
Dinis
una raleigh // August 12, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I can’t even get into the site to get a card it keeps saying temporarily down due to maintanance. Any good times to try does anyone know. I need to book a flight and the extra charge was 37 euro. Please help
Una
JR // August 14, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Anyone else notice their plastic Mastercard was badly embossed. Shallow and irregular. Noticeably on the back. It’s not a clone, is it?
Seniorhas // August 15, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Does this work for other airlines, eg Easyjet and Flybe?
Ricardo // August 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm
It works on Aer Lingus, they usually include the credit card charge on the screen, then it’s reduced when you pay by electron. (But if you click on taxes & charges a box appears that itemises the charges). Also works on flybmi & easyjet, who both charge for using cards other than electron. Flybe, I don’t know
Richard // August 15, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Una: when the site says down for maintainance, just hit the ‘try again’ button straight away. Then immediately hit ‘Log in’ again. It usually works fine. Good luck!
Ricardo // August 31, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Robert, did you really manage to open a euro account and not pay a credit card charge? The entropay helpdesk sent me this:
Thank you for your email.
In your case you may register a new EntroPay account and select EUR as the operating currency.
Further, EntroPay Virtual Cards are categorized, and branded by VISA as the “VISA Classic Debit” however if you plan to use it at Ryanair then their payment system does recognise our cards as VISA Electron. However this is only the case if your EntroPay account operates in GBP.
If we can be of any further assistance do not hesitate to contact us.
Best Regards
EntroPay Support
Ricardo // October 8, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Great I have also now opened a euro account and bought tickets with no credit card charge. I wonder why Entropay say you have to open the account in pound sterling. As a reminder to everyone, if you use entropay for tickets costing more than €100 each you will pay more than €5 in bank charges. But for most airlines I’ve looked at, certainly ryanair & aerlingus, if you want to, you just buy the tickets with entropay, then later if you want to add baggage, just use any credit card as they don’t charge cc fees for adding baggage
Richard // December 3, 2009 at 12:28 pm
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/travel/article.html?in_article_id=495106&in_page_id=1093
says that Ryanair will start charging £5 for Visa Electron from January. Now do we all need to get pre-paid mastercards ? Are they easily available in Ireland?