QANTAS has hit out at claims it rakes in millions from charging passengers to use their credit or debit cards to book flights.
Consumer watchdog Choice has estimated the airline rakes in approximately $100 million in profit every year from the credit card surcharges.
It comes as the Reserve Bank of Australia meets today to decide on whether to introduce new surcharge limits that would more accurately reflect the true cost of processing a credit card payment.
Choice estimates Qantas made $204 million in revenue from these surcharges from the 12 months up to February this year, and claims it has kept over half of that amount in its pocket.
“Our analysis shows that the Qantas group may be charging consumers at least $100m more each year than it needs under the guise of covering processing costs,” Matt Levey, Choice’s Head of Campaigns, said.
Qantas was one of the first major Australian businesses to impose credit card surcharges following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s move to allow such charges from 1 January 2003.
It was awarded a Shonky award by Choice in 2009 for the $7.70 surcharge.
0 comments:
Post a Comment