Excessive' card surcharges to go

"Excessive" fees for using a debit or credit card to buy items such as travel or cinema tickets will be banned by the end of 2012, under government plans.The move comes amid complaints that airlines, booking agencies and even councils were imposing excessive charges for using a card.However, firms will be allowed to levy a "small charge" to cover payment processing costs.The regulator has been investigating some airlines over surcharge clarity.Consumers buying a ticket online are often charged extra when they tick a box that says they intend to pay using a credit or debit card.Sometimes, consumers have found the payment is only added after they have ploughed their way through up to eight pages of a website.Examples of these charges are a £6 per person, per leg "administration fee" charged on all but one card by Ryanair, an £8 per booking charge by Easyjet - plus 2.5% when using a credit card, a £4.50 per booking credit card fee from British Airways, and a charge of up to 17 euros (£14.16) per person by Air Berlin.Local authorities and the DVLA also levy charges, as do many train, ferry, theatre and cinema ticket merchants.Sunil Pandit told the BBC that he was charged £72 for using his debit card to buy airline tickets for his family."You come to the end of [the online process] and think there cannot be anything else, surely, particularly if you are paying by debit card. I was shocked," he said.The issue of high surcharges prompted the consumers' association Which? to call on the regulator to investigate, saying "the price you see should be the price you pay".However, it accepted there could be an additional cost added for the cost to the retailer of accepting a card.The regulator, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), published a report in June about the travel industry's use of surcharges.It said charges must be clearer and surcharges for using a debit card should be banned.Now, the government is planning to go further than the OFT's recommendations and change the law so all "excessive" surcharges are banned.