Helpdesk: Paypal’s not so friendly on train ticket site

Q: I always use Thetrainline.com to book my train journeys in advance so as to get the best deals. I’m going to Dundee for the day to meet a friend from Aberdeen for lunch and had found a great deal on tickets which came to £13.20 return – a lot better than paying for petrol and parking.

After I booked it, I noticed there was a new option to pay with Paypal. I normally pay by card on the site but thought I might as well use Paypal as it offers a further protection and I use it on other sites.

However, Thetrainline.com did not clearly advertise, I certainly never noticed, that there was a £3.50 fee for using Paypal.

I only noticed once the transaction had gone through.

That is utterly ridiculous. I have never been charged extra for using Paypal before and can’t see why I should be. Instead, my “cheap” train ticket of £13.20, once Thetrainline.com added their “booking fee” of £1 and “Paypal transaction fee” of £3.50 shot up to £17.70.

I wish I had saved myself the hassle and could have just taken the car – I thought we were all meant to be encouraged to switch to public transport.

SM, Edinburgh

A: A spokeswoman for Thetrainline.com said: “Customers who book train tickets on Thetrainline.com are charged a £1 booking fee which is only applied once regardless of how many tickets or multiple journeys are booked within that one transaction. We do not make any charge for handling debit card transactions on our website.

“For those who wish to pay by credit card or Paypal, there is a charge of £3.50 which is clearly highlighted on the payment options before payment is taken and is only applied once, per transaction, regardless of the fare and how many tickets or multiple journeys are booked.”

• If you have a consumer issue that you would like tackling, contact Jane Bradley on 0131 620 8432 or e-mail [email protected].