Originally Posted by
alanR
The whole point of Ryanair - and other European low costs - offering "free" booking using Visa Electron is that it gives them a legal way of having low headline prices. However compared to other forms of payment few people have an Electron card so Ryanair and the rest get a "nice little earner" whilst still being legal.
Of course Ryanair is the only one that charges the fee per passenger per flight so a couple doing a return trip will pay four fees
I believe this to be not quite true. As I understand - as per EU directive - one free-of-charge method of payment has to be offered. Ryanair does that with Visa Electron, which is widely available in Great Britain and some other EU countries. Escpecially the eastern and northern EU countries use Visa Electron where it is a preferred credit card. I have some Norwegian and Polish friends who were rather surprised to find that this card is so hard to get in other countries; they receive the Visa Electron with the opening of any bank account.