Visa Only Payment Card Accepted at the Vancouver Olympics
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010I was watching the Winter Olympics this evening when a Visa commercial popped up, claiming it was the only payment card accepted at the Vancouver games.
This seemed a bit strange, as it would make life difficult for those holding MasterCard and American Express credit cards, not to mention out-of-towners and their random assortment of credit and debit cards.
But low and behold, it really is true, not just a marketing gimmick.
Visa has an exclusivity agreement with the Olympic Games to be the sole payment card provider accepted.
That means only Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards or cash can be used to purchase Olympic tickets, official merchandise, and/or food and beverages in the Olympic venues.
The same goes for the official Vancouver Olympics store, which states, “In recognition of Visa’s long-standing support of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we proudly accept only Visa cards on vancouver2010.com.”
Visa also created and manages the entire payment system infrastructure and network throughout the Olympic venues, so looks like they’re the boss.
It’s a bit surprising for Visa to shut out the other card issuers like this, but that’s competition for you.
Just unfortunate for the many visitors that will need to travel around with wads of cash, which could prove to be a boon for area pickpockets.
Oh, and the merchants that will lose out on all those would-be sales…