Credit Card History

THE HISTORY OF CREDIT CARDS 225 579 758 398 825 634 CARD References to credit cards date back to 1890 in Europe. The use of credit cards originated in the United States during the 1920s, when individual firms, like oil companies and hotel chains, began issuing them to customers. Early credit cards... CARO customer merchant Early credit cards involved sales directly between the merchant offering the credit and credit card, and that merchant's customer. $4 Credit cards were first promoted to traveling salesmen as a time-saving device rather than a form of credit. The inventor of the first bank issued credit card was John Biggins of the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn in New York. In 1946, Biggins invented the "Charge-It" program where... The merchant deposits a sales slip... BANK ..gives the sales slip to the bank... .then the bank bills the customer CARN In an effort to capture customer loyalty, department stores and gas stations began to offer charge accounts for their customers which could be accessed by a card. Unfortunately, people needed to bring dozens of these cards with them if they were to do a day of shopping. CARD CARD CARD Frank X McNamara, head of the Hamilton Credit Corporation had the idea of needing only one credit card. CARD In 1950 McNamara started The Diners' Club. The Diners' Club... .offers credit to individuals for many companies then bills the customers and pays the companies. The Diners' Club credit Instead of individual companies offering credit to their own customers whom they would bill later. CARD $2.5+ Trillion Total U.S. consumer credit Credit Debt $1 Trillion Total U.S. $8,800 per person consumer credit $.5 Trillion Total U.S. consumer $100,000's Total U.S. $4,000 per person credit consumer credit $2,000 per person $160 per person 1952 1984 1996 2012 $15,956 A person uses a credit card 119 times each year Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt is $15,956 $88 An average of $88 is spent on each transaction, totalling $10,472 a year How many credit cards do people sign up for every year? Billion 5.2 Billion Billion 1.3 Billion 2005 2009 2007 2011 In 2009 the U.S. had about $156 Million credit card holders $381.6 Million cítibank $304.5 Million CHASEO With about 1.4 billion cards in circulation, each credit card holder has eight credit cards. $94.1 Million AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD CARD CARD CARD CARD CARD $91.3 Million CapitalOne CARD CARD DISCOVER $88.4 Million NETWORK $74.1 Million Bank of America. Credit cards are used more than 20 billion times in a year. That's $1.9 trillion total value in transactions. There were 4.9 billion credit cards sent in 2012. U Lexington Law. This infographic was created by Lexingtonlaw.com, a law firm that helps consumers confront their credit report issues. SOURCES inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/credit_cards.htm indexcreditcards.com/finance/creditcardstatistics/2011-report-on-credit-card-usage-facts-statistics.html blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/americans-get-4b-new-credit-card-offers-in-2011-but-are-we-interested/ money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Debt-Consolidation/Consumer-Debt-Statistics/ creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-facts-personal-debt-statistics-1276.php money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Debt-Consolidation/Consumer-Debt-Statistics/ blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/americans-get-4b-new-credit-card-offers-in-2011-but-are-we-interested/ creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-facts-personal-debt-statistics-1276.php %24