Uncompetitive Olympic Credit Card Decision – Bye Bye Visa!

Filed Under Finance

I’m changing my name to “Mr Angry” today as I’m feeling pretty annoyed by the crazy decision to give Visa sole rights to supplying credit card services at the Olympics Games.

This is so blatantly anti-competitive, its unbelievable. It also does not paint a good picture about how the UK leads the world in free market economics and unfettered competition in our markets.

So bad is the scramble for funds by the Olympic committees, they are prepared, it seems, to go to almost any lengths to scratch around for a buck here, a pound there, even if it results in damaging commercial decisions such as this one.

We all want the Olympics to be a roaring success and I’d like to take the family along to at least one event as Stratford isn’t far away for us. But if the Olympics Committee continue to strike commercial deals of this nature, then they deserve every brickbat thrown at them.

As to Visa. I used to have a Visa card, which I used for business expenses so I would have earned a lot of money for them in credit card fees from retailers and suppliers. However one day, I made a mistake when I paid the bill and left about £5 running into the next month.

This was the first time that this had ever happened, so I when I received the £15 bill for the £5 overrun, I phoned Visa straight away to explain my error and previous good payment record.

“No sir, sorry, we can’t do anything to remove that charge from your account – you must pay it, I’m afraid”, they told me.

That was that. I put the Visa card in a drawer and never used it again. Earlier this year they wrote to me saying that they had noticed that my account was not being used and unless I contacted Visa within the next 30 days, the card would be cancelled.

So no more Visa card for me. I’ll have to pay by cheque for everything at the Olympics, if I do go. That is, if cheques are accepted, which they probably won’t be!