Budget airlines face legal action if they continue to charge customers for using their debit cards to pay for tickets.

Ryanair, Easyjet, Flybe and Thomson Airways are among the airways which hit customers with hidden debit card processing fees.

Customers are tempted with low and misleading headline fares, which significantly increase after compulsory fees are added at checkout.  

Travel firms and other businesses such as cinemas, estate agents, train and ferry operators and theatre ticket agencies have been ordered to remove these surcharges charges with immediate effect.  

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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) estimates that airline card surcharges alone are currently costing consumers over £300 million a year.

It wants consumers to pay for flights and other services online with a debit card without incurring an extra fee.

Credit cards may incur a processing fee but this should be openly advertised so that consumers are made aware of the additional costs before they reach the checkout.  

The UK consumer watchdog believes the practice of charging consumers hidden administration fees is not just misleading but also unjustifiable.  

According to research carried out by consumer group Which? it costs retailers no more than 20p to process debit card transactions and up to 2 percent on credit cards.  

As a result it has urged the government to update consumer regulations to ban surcharges levied on debit cards.