Ryanair and other airlines are defying the Office of Fair Trading's recommendations to stop charging extoritionate debit card booking fees.

The fees levied by banks on debit card transactions are around 20p. Airlines and other firms such as ferry companies are applying a surcharge of up to £8.00 when tickets are purchased. Ryanair are at the fore of the refusal to change this practice stating that the charge covers website administration. This in turn has led other companies to state that they are not willing to waive their fees until there is, as EasyJet says, "a level playing field".

Only one airline, Monarch, has ceased charging debit card fees. They did this at the beginning of June 2011 and say it took 48 hours for the change to be implemented.

The Office of Fair Trading have stated that credit card charges can continue but that they should be transparent from the beginning of a transaction. They have recommended that only the cost of the transaction be levied on debit card payments. They believe that consumers are unable to carry out price comparisons as the surcharges applied are of differing rates depending on the airline carrier. These charges are not clear until one is almost finished the booking process.

Following their 90 day investigation the Office of Fair Trading have now passed their findings to the Treasury. They Treasury now have 90 days to decide whether they wish to adopt the Office of Fair Trading's findings.