Having done this a fair few times over the last 15 years it would appear that in my diminished post flu state I have been caught out.

I applied via what I thought was the correct US Govt. website only to find the cost came back as $85 - this started the alarm bells ringing and looking into it I have applied via a third party company who check your application and then submit it.

Whilst all is well and the ESTA's have been issued - it has cost me an additional $71 per application.

The website looked almost identical to the US Visa site - be careful folks.

I am not best pleased.....