History of the Credit card – Tale Of The Credit Card Over Time
Posted April 30th, 2010The credit card is an important part of our daily lives. However, credit cards are actually a rather modern innovation. Read on to learn all about the history of the credit card.
Are you interested in credit card history? Since credit cards are a part of our daily lives now, it’s difficult to consider that the credit card is actually a relatively new phenomena and has only been available quite recently.
Early predecessors
The modern credit card is actually a successor to “merchant credit” schemes. These early ancestors of the credit card allowed customers to pay a merchant later on, a month or so after they made their purchases. Initially, these deals were between individual merchants and consumers.
In the 1920s, such deals were common between petrol sellers and automobile owners, whereby automobile owners would pay for any petrol purchased at the end of the month. In the late 30s, different petrol sellers began to accept each others cards in a bid to make more sales.
The Charga-Plate is probably the most easily recognisable ancestor of the modern credit card. It was a rectangular metal sheet that bore the customer’s identity details and an imprint of their signature. This card was used in the 40s and 50s and is an important part of credit card history.
Introduction of charge cards
In the 50s, Frank McNamara and the other founders of the Diners Club revolutionized the consumer credit industry. They introduced the concept of a single card that would be accepted by multiple merchants. The Diners Club Card was born and became a popular card that was accepted by many merchants in the United States. Soon afterwards Carte Blanche and American Express introduced their own cards.
Technically, these cards were not credit cards since they needed to be paid off in full at the end of each month.
The first credit cards
The first credit cards were introduced in the late 1950s. Before then, nobody had been able to organize multiple banks which would jointly issue a single card that could be used at a number of merchants.
In 1958, Bank of America launched the BankAmericard, now known as the Visa card. This was the first card in credit card history which gave consumers a revolving line of credit that could be used at a number of different retailers.
In 1966 a group of California banks joined together to launch their own card, now known as the MasterCard. This card was a direct competitor of the BankAmericard.
In 1966 the first non-US credit card was launched by Barclays Bank in the UK, known as the Barclaycard.
Recent developments
In the late twentieth century, the use of credit cards spread beyond the USA and the UK. In addition, card providers began to offer competitive terms such as great rewards programs and low interest rates.
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