British Airways credit card fee is changing. 1% flat fees introduced.

British Airways, a stalwart of this blog, is changing how they process credit card payments in the future. 14th December 2016 to be exact.

The current credit card fee is £5 for revenue bookings per person from the UK, so Avios redemptions are exempted. All debit card transactions are free. Other countries attract different pricing mechanisms for their cards, so I won't deal with those here.

Under the new scheme, the credit card fee will be 1% of the ticket price, capped at £20. Using basic maths anyone who regularly makes revenue bookings under £500 will win out here, while everyone else will suffer. However, we are talking about winning pennies and losing pounds.

With rather poor business acumen, BA are not doing any sort of discounts for their branded American Express card.

Since the credit card charged is applied per person, you will need to multiply the charge by the appropriate number of passengers. There is no change on this part. But clearly the current £20 for 4 persons going to £80 will hurt.

Be aware that in the UK there is the Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act which gives you protection for credit card purchases over £100. It means the credit card company can be held equally liable to a contract as the retailer. This can have significant benefits for situations where a company might go insolvent, or disputes over the quality of item where the retailer is being a pain in the backside. If you choose to pay by debit card you will waive your rights to these claims.

There does appear to be a big question mark around charges for Avios redemption bookings. Will these be affected? We currently don't know the answer though hopefully British Airways will clarify this in the near future.

(Thanks to Business Traveller and Head for Points)

What do you think of these changes? Will you be affected? Let us know below.