Using a Virgin CC to pay for a Virgin Holiday

Hi

I am positive I read before that if you have a Virgin CC and book a Virgin Holiday you receive a £25 discount and you are not charged the 1.5% for using a credit card.

Has anybody else heard of this offer or do you know if this offer still available ?

[mitchja]

Not heard of this and VH did charge me the 1.5% CC charge when I used my Virgin card earlier this year [:(!]

Regards

I have not heard anything about the waiving of the fee and a £25 discount, but don't forget if you pay the £80 for the card you will earn 2 points per £ spent on anything (not just virgin holidys). On a family holiday I guess that could add up to 5000 points easy (£2500 @ 2 miles per point).

With my standard algorythm this means you earn nearly about £50 worth of miles.

Isn't that worth doing it for that anyway. And I am sure you can redeem miles for discount vouchers off a VH package.

Paul

Considered paying for the VH holiday with Virgin CC but 1.5% fee is the equivalent of paying £600 for 40000 miles or an PE to Upper upgrade. As on occations UC can be had for less than £600 more than PE it seemed a not very cheap way of getting miles.

Although if I had the 2 miles fo every £1 option it probably would be worth while.

Hi all booked my holiday with v.h last week paid the deposit on my cc and got charged 1.5% £3.60 which is on my invoice .
always been the credit card surcharge as far as i can remember.[n]

After my last VH trip, where I suffered the 1.5% surcharge, along with 'Indian Call Centre Purgatory', I will never use them again [:(!]

Can someone tell me why it is that when paying by credit card for most travel companies levy this charge of around 1.5% - 2.5% TAX[:(!]
Yet when i go to the garage, supermarket, restaurant etc etc there is no fee.

Just seems to me to be another way of filling the coffers by the back door !!!!

Regards

Paul

Originally posted by paul_a142
Can someone tell me why it is that when paying by credit card for most travel companies levy this charge of around 1.5% - 2.5% TAX[:(!]
Yet when i go to the garage, supermarket, restaurant etc etc there is no fee.

Regards

Paul

Paul,

There is a fee - "the good guys" absorb it.

David

David

Obviously there aren't enough guys in the travel industry then !!!!!

I booked a cruise for January with a 3rd party agency and the only reason I picked them was because they didn't charge for a CC.

So they they got my business and whatever bonus RCCL gives them, for not being greedy.[y]

Having said that I will still be using my Virgin Mastercard to pay for my VH next week to get me my double points[:p]

Regards

Paul

Originally posted by paul_a142
David
I booked a cruise for January with a 3rd party agency and the only reason I picked them was because they didn't charge for a CC.

Sorry to disagree, but you did pay a charge for a CC. It's all in the headline price, just like the cost of petrol at the pump includes an element to pay the banks their commission.

Originally posted by Ian
Sorry to disagree, but you did pay a charge for a CC. It's all in the headline price, just like the cost of petrol at the pump includes an element to pay the banks their commission.

Hi Ian,

Will agree and disagree with you. Agree on your first point that there is probably something bulit into the holiday price for c/c surcharge, but there is definately nothing built into the price of a litre of fuel - margins are extremely tight - (however the price of the mars bar and can of coke inside might be a different matter;))

Margins at the moment range from 0.7ppl to 3.5ppl on good day

regards

David

I don't consider businesses greedy for charging the extra %age for credit card transactions.

My business gets charged 2.5% for every transaction and a monthly rental fee for the machine that takes the transaction, the whole point of having the availability to pay by CC is for the customers convenience and the bank screws the business for it, its not as if the cash is actually transferred to the business any faster than a cheque, its just taken from the customer instantly and arrives in our account sometimes weeks later.

Ian

Understand what you are saying, but the point I was trying to make is that the company that charges extra for the CC purchase is not only taking from the customer with his mark up but also adding the extra % as well[:(!]

The cruise I mentioned was identically priced at both TA's but the one wanted an extra £35 from me to use my CC.

easygoingeezer

Thats the difference between the supplier and the customer!!!!!

Regards

Paul

I don't actuall agree with any extra charging. You don't see a surcharge for electricity, email collection, rent, rates and everything else that goes into running a business.

I have been there and sold via the internet and did not charge a % charge. Think of it this way, payment by CC is pretty much cash in t bank, except you even need to bank it, so no one has to add it up and fill out the slipm, take it down to the bank and pay it it, think of how much staff cost that is.

The bad thing from a retailer point of view on accepting CCs in that the banks take no responsibility for fraudulent use. All charge backs go straight back to the vendor and unless you pretty much have a bona fide signature (and most transactions are 'customer not present') you pretty much have to take the hit.

Unless the policy has changed recently, ebay ban any sellers from stating that a CC surcharge will apply.

This should firmly go under Cost of Sales.

Paul

[preiffer]

Doesn't it cost companies more to bank cash than it does to take credit for card transactions anyway? (hence the cash-back theory in Supermarkets?)

Well in my business which is funeral directing an average funeral being £2000, 80% of which is costs to the funeral director to councils, churches, organists disbursments which we have no control over and make no profit from. We pay this in order to take away as much stress from a breaved family as possible. then we wait sometimes up to 6 months for the family to drop in and pay by CC, sorry but I only waive the CC charge if my clients pay within one month, I already give an interest free loan really. For instance a buriel plot costs £1200, the local council insists its paid before a funeral or they won't do it. For a buriel and church service the total invoice is around £3500, only £750 of that total is payment for items or services offered by a Funeral Director. Some businesses demand the other payments up front but we don't do that because we give a damn about peoples feelings and our clients.

People forget that in our business we only make a living off the actual items we sell which is a fraction of the total bill.

We certainly do know the difference between a client and a supplier.[:(!]

I do not charge customers for taking card payments,I find people are more willing to hand over the plastic and spend much more on impulse buys.I am charged 0.05% for paying in cash and 28p per cheque + 75p per counter deposit @ the bank.My CC charges range from 35p(debit) upto 2.6%(amex).I can live with these fees and have to say I have more problems with rubber cheques than plastic.Money hits my account in 2 working days upto 5 with a cheque.

I try not to purchase from anyone who wants to put a credit card supplement on the price.

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
People forget that in our business we only make a living off the actual items we sell which is a fraction of the total bill.

So then add all your additional costs in and work out what % profit you want/need to make your company profitable. Many companies, especially small companies actually under charge. But please do not add on surcharges, these suck, just the same as the fuel surcharges do on flights. If your costs have gone up increase your price, don't add a surcharge.

Paul

p17blo

I agree entirely, its human nature if it's in the total price noboby complains, it's just when there is a%age added to the total that gets peoles backs up.

Same as car rental and insurance wjy dont they just give you the total price, instead a base figure then add this that and the other.

i believe people would be a lot happier if when they booked or bought anything the bottom line was final, not plus a %age.

Regards

Paul

Regards

Paul

[preiffer]

Originally posted by paul_a142

Same as car rental and insurance wjy dont they just give you the total price, instead a base figure then add this that and the other.

The car insurance one, I can understand in the US - a LOT of motor insurance policies (in fact most of them) include basic insurances for a driver when hiring a car, so US customers want the choice.

But I do agree with the all-in pricing where applicable. As in, you CAN'T buy an airline ticket without paying the taxes/charges, so why are they ADDED on to the price?! [:0][:(!]

We do not make a profit on disbursments so we would never consider adding a %age charge or any other for grave plots, cremation fees and vicars, we make our profit on the actual items we sell and only add CC
charges when people choose to pay after 30 days of invoice.

I find it shocking that people have this simple black and white attitude to business, not all businesses are the same, I am not selling tins of beanz.

Only a fraction of my clients choose to pay by CC mainly the ones that have not paid the bill on time.

I am not going to build in an overall %age that those who choose to pay on time have to pay. Personally I think 5 weeks grace to pay an invoice is pretty good.

I think that this one is going to be a no score draw situation, even after extra time and penalties, and that we have to agree to disagree.[i]

And as I said in my first reply will still use my Virgin CC to pay for my holiday so as to get those extra Miles:D:D:D

Regards

Paul

quintessential dychotomy suits me too:D so leaving this thread.

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
quintessential dychotomy suits me too:D so leaving this thread.

Is that something that is specific to the funeral directing business:D. Sorry, not trying to say anything 'inappropriate', just try to lighten the sitaution:D

Paul