Visa Says Credit Card Problem for 2012 Olympics Has Been Fixed

Visa Inc. (V) says it’s fixed the problem that prevented people from booking tickets for the 2012 London Olympics by credit card.

Fans with Visa cards that expired before the end of August were unable to process applications yesterday as 6.6 million tickets went on public sale.

Visa, the world’s biggest electronic payments network, said starting March 21 all of the company cards with an expiration date of May 2011 or later will be accepted by the London Games’ ticket application website.

“Any Visa cardholders with an April expiry date will receive a replacement card before the ticket registration deadline of 26th April,” the company said in a statement. “This means that all Visa cardholders will be able to apply for tickets before the 26 April deadline.”

Visa is an Olympics sponsor and the only card that can be used to buy tickets for the London Games. Tickets are issued on a first-come, first-served basis so any registration taking place before the deadline will have an equal chance of success in the ballot, the company said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Bensch in London at bbensch@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net.