25 Interesting Credit Card Facts
Posted November 28th, 2009 and last modified November 18th, 2011
Best No Annual Fee Card
The HSBC Credit Card is a fantastic card for making everyday transactions on such as purchasing groceries, or paying the bills. It features a $0 annual fee for the life of the card and up to 55 days interest free so it will cost you nothing to use this card provided you repay your balance in full each month
- $0 annual fee
- 17.99% p.a. on purchases
- 0% p.a. for 6 months with 2% handling fee on balance transfers
- Cash Advance Rate of 21.99% p.a.
- 55 days interest free
- Minimum Income Requirement of $20,000 p.a.
- Winner of Money Magazine’s ‘Best Transactor Card 2010′
Credit cards are mysterious, scary at times and can also be the best hip buddy you’ll ever have. But one thing we often wonder about is the secret life of credit cards. Thanks to the following credit card facts you can now shed light onto these little plastic bits:
1. Credit cards were originally akin to modern store cards, offered by individual stores and only for use at those stores. The first one to be used at multiple locations was offered by The Diner’s Club in 1950, and it was good for use in twenty seven restaurants in New York City.
2. American Express issued its first credit card in 1958 and their Black Centurion card today has a $2,500 annual fee and minimum spend requirement of $250,00 a year. That’s not earnings, that’s spending.
3. Visa began life as BankAmericard, offered by Bank of America in 1958. It became Visa in 1976.
4. Visa stands Visa International Service Association.
5. The Visa logo colours represent the blue of the sky and the gold of the hills in California where Bank of America was founded.
6. MasterCard began life as MasterCharge, and was formed by four Californian banks in 1967. It became MasterCard in 1979, and was the first card to use holograms.
7. Discover Card was introduced by Sears in 1985. Sears was owned by Dean Witter, which merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997.
8. It is against the merchant agreements of MasterCard, Visa, and American Express for a vendor to require you to provide your phone number, home address, or other personal information. You also do not need to present a driver’s license, nor spend above a certain purchase amount.
9. A fixed interest rate on a credit card can be changed with only 15 days notice from the credit card provider.
10. You do not have to sign anything to agree to the cardholder agreement. You are agreeing to this when you first use your card.
11. A very pertinent credit card fact is that if you have several debts on one card at different interest rates, payments are applied to the balance with the lower interest rate first.
12. Credit card companies are all headquartered in US states with a high cap, or no cap, on interest rates.
13. Each American household receives approximately 6 credit card offers a month.
14. Minimum payments are so low because it allows the consumer to carry more debt. Someone who can only pay $100 per month can have a credit limit as high as $5,000 if they only have to pay 2% of that amount.
15. Credit cards are all the same shape and size, as their dimensions are governed by the ISO 7810 standard, an international standard for identification cards.
16. You can often lower your interest rate with a phone call to your provider, if you suggest you might go elsewhere if they don’t play ball.
17. Credit card numbers conform to the Luhn algorithm, which is a simple checksum test on the number.
18. There are generally two types of magnetic strips: high-coercivity and low-coercivity. High-coercivity is stronger and more durable.
19. Higher-coercivity are usually black and low-coercivity strips are dark brown.
20. Low-coercivity strip cards can be scrambled by a weak magnetic force, including mobile phones.
21. A potentially useful credit card fact for anyone under 18 is that they cannot be forced to pay back any charges on a credit card they own, because they are not allowed to enter into a legally-binding contract until they reach 18.
22. Visa and MasterCard operate zero-liability policies in respect to fraudulent use.
23. A common clause in the terms and conditions is that the cardholder waives their right to sue the credit card company.
24. Credit card companies earned $90.1B in interest in 2006.
25. Credit card companies earned $55.2B in fees in 2006.
Check out today's featured offers:
| Westpac Low Rate | Citibank Clear Platinum | Qantas AMEX Discovery | ANZ Platinum |
 |
 |
 |
 |
0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers |
2.9% p.a. for 12 months |
$0 annual fee Up to 10,000 Bonus QFF Points |
0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers |
|
|
|
|
Subscribe to our newsletter and get "The Ultimate Guide to Balance Transfers"
If You Like This Post...
Get all the latest deals, guides and loopholes go in Credit Card Finder's free bi-monthly email. Don't miss out - join the thousands who get it emailed!
Ask A Question