Some light has been shed, by the Daily Telegraph, on why credit card firm Visa might have been so keen to become the official card for the Olympics, courtesy of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, LOCOG.

Fans purchasing tickets have been ordering far more than they can afford, on the basis that they will only get a small fraction of them, and that they will be able to sell their unwanted tickets on the LOCOG resale website. What however has only just sunk in with those using their Visa credit card is that if they are unable to pay for all the tickets in full in June when the Visa bill is due they will have to pay Visa rates of interest until the resale website is up and running, which LOCOG say will not be until sometime next year.

Meaning that Visa customers caught in what seems to be a very profitable scam can look forward to paying Visa an estimated £50 million in interest fees in 2011, and more in 2012 until LOCOG launch their website.

Credit card providers now charge their customers the highest rate for thirteen years, an average of 19.1%. And according to a recent investigation by consumer group Which? some vendors, such as budget airlines Ryanair, BMIBaby, Easyjet and Flybe increase the misery by slapping on a hefty surcharge for the use of a credit card, which can be up to 200 times the cost of processing the payment.