50 Fun Facts About Credit Cards

In which year did Diners Club produce the first general-purpose charge card?

Diners Club issued its charge card in 1950, after Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider wanted a single card that many New York merchants would accept.

Per company legend, what did Frank McNamara forget at a restaurant in 1949, inspiring Diners Club?

Company legend says McNamara forgot his wallet at New York's Major's Cabin Grill; Diners Club dubbed his return visit 'The First Supper', though its own press agent later called the story invented.

Which hotel chain originated the Carte Blanche charge card?

Carte Blanche began as the Hilton Hotels credit card in the late 1950s, a travel-and-entertainment card competing with Diners Club before Citibank acquired it.

In which year did Diners Club introduce its first plastic card?

Diners Club switched from cardboard to its first plastic card in 1961; the earliest cards had been printed on paper stock.

In which California city did Bank of America first test-launch BankAmericard?

Bank of America chose Fresno because about 45% of its 250,000 residents already banked there and the city's isolation would contain any failure.

Roughly how many unsolicited cards did Bank of America mail in its initial BankAmericard 'drop'?

Bank of America's initial mailing sent roughly 65,000 unsolicited BankAmericards to one city's residents; within a year more than 2 million cards had been issued across California.

How much did Bank of America officially lose on the launch of BankAmericard?

Bank of America's official loss on the BankAmericard launch was over $8.8 million; counting advertising and overhead the true figure was nearer $20 million, yet the card soon turned profitable.

In which year did the BankAmericard licensees unify under the name Visa?

The BankAmericard licensees around the world unified under the single name Visa in 1976, keeping the card's blue, white and gold flag design.

Who was Visa's first CEO, the man who also coined its name?

Dee Hock, who had run a Seattle bank's BankAmericard licence, became the first CEO of the member-owned card association and picked the name Visa.

What was Mastercard called before it adopted its current name in 1979?

Master Charge was the brand of the Interbank Card Association's card from 1969 until the 1979 renaming to MasterCard; Citibank's Everything Card was absorbed into it in 1969.

The two overlapping circles of the Mastercard logo came from which regional banking group?

The Western States Bankcard Association, a group of California banks, created the interlocking-circles logo; the Interbank Card Association acquired the rights to it in 1969.

In which New York town is Mastercard headquartered?

Mastercard's global headquarters sits in Purchase, a hamlet in the town of Harrison in Westchester County; the company has been publicly traded since its 2006 IPO.

What is Mastercard's long-running advertising tagline?

Mastercard's 'Priceless' campaign began in 1997 with the line 'There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard.'

American Express was founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York, as what kind of business?

American Express started as a freight forwarding company, an express business moving parcels and valuables; founders Henry Wells and William Fargo went on to start Wells Fargo in 1852.

In which year did American Express issue its first charge card?

American Express issued its first charge card in 1958 on paper stock; the Gold Card followed in 1966, the green card in 1969 and the Platinum Card in 1984.

What is the invitation-only American Express card launched in 1999, nicknamed the 'black card'?

The Centurion Card is offered by invitation to American Express's highest spenders; the company created it in 1999 after an urban legend about a secret black card spread.

Which retailer introduced the Discover card in 1985?

Sears launched Discover in 1985 through its Dean Witter financial arm; the card charged no annual fee and paid a cash-back bonus, both unusual at the time.

What was the value of the first trial Discover transaction, in Atlanta in September 1985?

The first trial Discover transaction, rung up at an Atlanta store in September 1985, came to $26.77; the card rolled out nationally the next year.

Which was the first credit card issued in the United Kingdom, launched in 1966?

Barclaycard, launched by Barclays in June 1966, was Britain's first credit card; it began as a charge card and offered revolving credit from November 1967.

What was the Charga-Plate, used in US stores from the 1930s to the late 1950s?

The Charga-Plate was an embossed metal card imprinted onto sales slips; Farrington Manufacturing developed it in 1928 and some stores kept the plates on file rather than giving them to customers.

Which airline helped create the Air Travel Card in 1934, letting passengers buy now and pay later?

American Airlines and the Air Transport Association created the Air Travel Card in 1934; holders got a 15% discount, and by 1941 about half of airline revenues came through the scheme.

In which year were unsolicited mass mailings of credit cards outlawed in the United States?

Congress banned unsolicited credit card mailings in 1970, after roughly 100 million cards had been dropped on the public, including, Life magazine complained, on drunks and compulsive debtors.

Which 1888 utopian novel by Edward Bellamy describes a concept it calls credit cards?

Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888) uses the term 'credit card', though his cards work more like modern debit cards, drawing down each citizen's share of national output.

How does a charge card differ from a credit card?

A charge card's balance must be repaid in full each cycle, while a credit card lets the holder carry a revolving balance and pay interest on it.

What are the standard dimensions of a credit card under the ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 standard?

ID-1 cards measure 85.60 by 53.98 mm, the same format used for ATM and debit cards, with corners rounded to a radius of about 3 mm.

What does the final numeral of a payment card number represent?

The last digit is a Luhn check digit; the mod-10 formula, devised at IBM in the 1950s, catches mistyped numbers but is not a security measure.

What do the first six or eight digits of a card number identify?

This issuer identification number, or BIN, starts with a major industry identifier digit.

How many digits can a payment card number have?

ISO/IEC 7812 allows a card number of 8 to 19 digits; most Visa and Mastercard numbers use 16, while older Visa ranges used 13.

Which IBM engineer devised the magnetic stripe card in 1960?

IBM engineer Forrest Parry devised the magnetic stripe card in 1960; the story goes that his wife suggested fixing the stripe to the plastic with a clothes iron.

Where is the security number printed on an American Express card?

American Express prints a four-digit code on the front of the card, above the account number; Visa, Mastercard and Discover put a three-digit code on the back.

An employee of which company invented the card security code in the UK in 1995?

Equifax employee Michael Stone devised the card security code in the UK in 1995 as an eleven-character alphanumeric string; APACS later trimmed it to three digits.

What do the letters EMV stand for?

EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa, the three companies that created the chip-card standard in the mid-1990s; it is now managed by the EMVCo consortium.

Which country deployed the first national smart payment card standard in 1986?

France deployed the Bull-CP8 'M4' smart card standard for its Carte Bancaire network in 1986, years ahead of EMV; its banks later migrated the whole card and terminal network to EMV.

When did the EMV fraud "liability shift" take effect for merchants in the United States?

From 1 October 2015, US merchants without chip-capable terminals became liable for counterfeit card fraud, a decade after the UK's 2005 liability shift.

What is the typical range of a credit card grace period?

Grace periods usually run 20 to 55 days depending on the card and bank, and most cards offer none at all if a balance is carried over from the previous statement.

US federal law limits a cardholder's liability for unauthorised credit card use to what figure?

15 U.S.C. § 1643 caps a cardholder's liability for unauthorised credit card use at $50, and the Fair Credit Billing Act sets out the dispute process.

Under the 2009 Credit CARD Act, how much notice must a card company give before raising fees?

The Credit CARD Act requires 45 days' notice before rate or fee increases; most provisions took effect on 22 February 2010, and it also made over-limit charges opt-in.

What is the name of the standardised disclosure table that US credit card advertising must include?

The Schumer box is named after Chuck Schumer, who as a New York congressman pushed through the 1988 Fair Credit and Charge Card Disclosure Act requiring the table.

What fee do credit card cash advances typically incur?

Cash advances typically cost a fee of 3–5% of the amount, and interest accrues from the moment the money is withdrawn, with no grace period.

What cap did the EU impose on interchange fees for consumer credit cards in April 2015?

The EU's 2015 Interchange Fee Regulation capped consumer credit card interchange at 0.3% of the transaction value, and debit cards at 0.2%.

How much did US credit card companies collect in interchange fees in 2008?

Interchange fees collected from US merchants in 2008 totalled about $48 billion, which worked out at an average of $427 per family.

Roughly how many credit cards existed in the world in June 2018?

Roughly 7.75 billion credit cards were in circulation worldwide in June 2018; the United States alone had 1.09 billion in 2020, held by 72.5% of American adults.

Which company bought the Diners Club network from Citigroup in 2008 for $165 million?

Discover Financial paid Citigroup $165 million for Diners Club International in 2008; Citibank had owned the club since 1981.

Which credit card practice did US federal regulators ban in 2003?

Negative amortization, where minimum payments fall short of finance charges so the balance grows, was banned by US regulators in 2003 because it masked the true quality of a lender's portfolio.

Which 1978 Supreme Court case helped break the regional monopolies of the early US credit card industry?

In Marquette v. First of Omaha (1978) the Supreme Court let national banks charge their home state's interest rate nationwide, opening regional card markets to out-of-state competition.

Which US state's repeal of interest-rate caps drew Citibank's card operations there in 1981?

Citibank moved its credit card operations to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1981 after the state repealed its interest-rate caps, letting the bank charge higher rates nationwide.

Until 1984, which US federal law prohibited surcharges on card transactions?

A mid-1970s amendment to the Truth in Lending Act banned surcharges on card payments until it lapsed in 1984, after which several states passed their own surcharge bans.

As of 2010, which country stayed cash-oriented, with cards used mainly at big merchants?

Japan remained a largely cash-based society in 2010, with credit cards accepted mainly by large merchants; cashless payment grew sharply there over the following decade.

Under which ISO/IEC standard does a credit card's magnetic stripe conform?

ISO/IEC 7813 specifies the magnetic stripe tracks on financial transaction cards; the card's physical size follows the separate ID-1 format.

In card-industry terms, what is a chargeback?

A chargeback is a disputed payment reversed and returned to the cardholder by the card-issuing bank, with the amount debited from the merchant, often plus a dispute fee.