The History of Credit Cards
In 1958 one bank mailed about 60,000 plastic cards to a single city, Fresno, California.
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In this lesson you learn to
- Place the main steps in the history of credit cards: store credit, club card, bank card
- Describe who is involved in a card payment and who owes whom
- Explain the grace period and how unpaid balances are charged interest
Check yourself: sample questions
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1.In 1958, one bank mailed about 60,000 plastic cards to a single city. Which city?
In 1958 one bank mailed about 60,000 plastic cards to a single city, Fresno, California.
2.True or false: before universal cards, metal charge plates worked in many stores.
Store-issued charge plates carried the customer's name but worked only in the issuing store.
3.What was a charge card like the early club card of around 1950?
A charge card requires the full bill each month. Revolving credit (Fresno, 1958) lets part of it carry over, with interest.
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Sources (9)
- Matty Simmons: The Day Cash Died (Saturday Evening Post, 4.4.2016, Auszug aus seinem Buch)
- 99% Invisible: The Fresno Drop (Transkript)
- Livia Gershon: A Brief History of the Credit Card (JSTOR Daily, 14.11.2016, aktualisiert 9.9.2024)
- CFPB: What is a grace period for a credit card?
- ECB: Card payments in Europe (Renewed focus on SEPA for cards, 2014) und ECB Occasional Paper 131 Interchange fees
- Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City: Interchange Fees in Credit and Debit Card Markets: What Role for Public Authorities? (Konferenzband)
- NerdWallet: The History of the Credit Card
- CFPB: What is a credit card interest rate? What does APR mean?
- Eigene Berechnung (synthetische Rechenbeispiele, Python decimal)
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Education only. Not financial advice.