Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the millionaire founder of EasyJet, is to start offering personalised credit cards under the new Easymoney brand from next month - adding to a range of businesses which already includes internet cafes and car hire firms.
He expects to make losses for at least a few years but has not ruled out floating off the business, as he has done eventually with EasyJet.
Aiming for 75,000 customers within a year, all of whom will have to register for the card over the net, he also intends to start offering loans. However, Mr Haji-Ioannou ruled out trying to lure in savers with high interest accounts - the route chosen by many new entrants to the financial services arena.
But his distinctive, bright orange credit card may face criticism from consumer groups because it could reject those on low incomes because of its reliance on the credit-quality scoring of applicants.
"What we're saying is we'll do things differently. For some people we'll be cheaper, for some we'll be more expensive if they've been rejected by another company, and for some we'll refuse cards altogether. We're trying to inject some science into the process," Mr Haji-Ioannou said.
In partnership with Accucard, a new firm providing the software, Easymoney aims to allow customers to chose the rate of interest they pay on their balances, trading off cash-backs or loyalty points with other parts of the Easy chain for higher rates of interest. Customers' credit ratings will also be used to set their rate of interest, which is likely to fall in the range of 9% to 19%.
To comply with industry regulations, the cards will be issued by London Scottish, a bank which focuses on clients historically turned away by high street banks. Customers who miss the target could be passed on to London Scottish.
Mr Haji-Ioannou, who publicly cut up his Barclaycard in a row with the provider over the Luton airport base of his EasyJet empire, is testing the first Easymoney card. "I don't borrow, so I didn't minimise my interest rates. I maximised my cash-back instead," he said.
