Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron
card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?

--
Alasdair.

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:50:59 +0000, Alasdair wrote:

Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card?

Ask your bank to downgrade your existing card. Join a bank with an
account that offers Visa Electron. Most banks don't offer it now.

Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron card
but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?

It is a 'credit' card, but it does not offer credit, you are not allowed
to go into debt with it, you must have the full funds for a transaction
in your account if you wish to use the card.

"nonanon" wrote

It is a 'credit' card, but it does not offer credit, you are not allowed
to go into debt with it, you must have the full funds for a transaction
in your account if you wish to use the card.

I thought it was a 'debit' card, but I could be wrong on that.

They're also unique (?) in that they do not have embossed details on them,
ensuring that they can only be used on electronic processing machines which
can read the chip built into them.

John.

"John Turner" wrote in message
m...
"nonanon" wrote

It is a 'credit' card, but it does not offer credit, you are not allowed
to go into debt with it, you must have the full funds for a transaction
in your account if you wish to use the card.

I thought it was a 'debit' card, but I could be wrong on that.

They're also unique (?) in that they do not have embossed details on them,
ensuring that they can only be used on electronic processing machines
which can read the chip built into them.

Not entirely true...I've had occasions where the machine couldn't read the
chip, so the shop staff have swiped the magnetic strip instead...
But you're right about no embossed text...

"Alasdair" wrote in message
...
Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron
card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?

--
It is a pre-authorisation debit card. An ordinary debit card can be using
without actually checking funds are in your bank. For example if you
purchase something on a plane, they don't actually access your bank to do
the transaction, the terminal is hooked up to a computer on the ground and
the transactions downloaded then. There's very little justification for any
company charging for Electron cards because the charges are low and risk
negligible. Some companies like Ryanair used them because the law was
changed a few years ago which meant that all charges had to be included in
the advertised fare. Ryanair got around including the debit/credit card by
offering at least one payment that there wasn't a charge, hence the Electron
option. If you want the card to use with Ryanair, you're too late, too many
people applied for them to use with Ryanair, so the lovely Mr.O'Dreary has
this year changed it to a prepaid/top up Mastercard.

"Alasdair" wrote in message
...
Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron
card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?


You can get a pre-paid debit card for travelling from the Post Office called
the Travel Money Card. These cards are Visa Electron.

http://www.postoffice.co.uk
Look under Travel, and then Travel Money.

Hope this helps.

- Paul

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:08:26 -0000, "Paul" i.do_not.like-sp@m wrote:

These cards are Visa Electron.

But they are not Mastercard Pre-pay, so no good for Ryanair.

--
Alasdair.

"Alasdair" wrote in message
...
Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron
card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?

--
Alasdair.

http://www.mycashplus.co.uk/
"Cashplus is a safe way to shop online or in stores worldwide, in fact,
wherever you see the MasterCard acceptance mark.

It comes with free Purchase Protection, and our award winning
Creditbuilder*, which could help improve your credit rating at no extra
cost. It offers an easy way to budget and a great alternative to a bank
account or credit card.

It's the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard, and it's yours without credit
checks."

In message , Alasdair
wrote
Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron
card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?

It's so the airlines can advertise a low fare. If customers choose to
pay by other means they will have to pay an extra charge. In reality
the lower fare wouldn't be available at all if everyone paid by Electron
card.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Up Yours! wrote:


"Alasdair" wrote in message
...
Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and
railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron
card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.

By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?

--
Alasdair.

http://www.mycashplus.co.uk/
"Cashplus is a safe way to shop online or in stores worldwide, in fact,
wherever you see the MasterCard acceptance mark.

It comes with free Purchase Protection, and our award winning
Creditbuilder*, which could help improve your credit rating at no extra
cost. It offers an easy way to budget and a great alternative to a bank
account or credit card.

It's the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard, and it's yours without credit
checks."

That's not an Electron Card, it is however what you now need to book a
Ryanair flight without any additional card processing fees from Ryanair.
There may however be fees from the card issuer.