THE HISTORY OFCREDIT CARDS

225

634

579

825

758

398

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.

References to credit cards date back to 1890 in Europe.

Early credit cards involved sales directly between the merchant offering the credit and

credit card, and that merchant's customer.

customer merchant

The inventor of the first bank issued credit card was John Biggins of the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn in New York.

Credit cards were first promoted to traveling salesmen as a time-saving device rather than a form of credit.

Unfortunately, people needed to bring dozens of these cards with them if they were to do a day of shopping.

Frank X McNamara, head of the Hamilton Credit Corporation had the idea of needing only

one credit card.

In 1950 McNamara started The Diners’ Club.

Instead of individual companies offering credit to their own customers whom they would bill later.

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.

The merchant deposits a sales slip...

...gives the sales slip to the bank...

BANK

..then the bank bills the customer

In 1946, Biggins invented the "Charge-It" program where...

Early credit cards...

The Diners’ Club...

...offers credit to individuals for many companies then bills the customers and pays the companies.

credit

The Diners’ Club

$100,000'sTotal U.S. consumer

credit

$160 per person

$2,000per person

$4,000per person

$8,800per person

$.5 TrillionTotal U.S. consumer

credit

$1 TrillionTotal U.S. consumer

credit

$2.5+ TrillionTotal U.S. consumer

credit

1952 1984 1996 2012

Credit Debt

How many credit cards do people sign up for every year?

2009 201120072005

6 Billion

1.3 Billion

5.2 Billion 4

Billion

$74.1 Million

$88.4 Million

$91.3 Million

$94.1 Million

$304.5 Million

$381.6 Million

Average credit card debt per household with credit

card debt is $15,956

$15,956

That’s $1.9 trillion total value in transactions.

Credit cards are used more than 20 billion times in a year.

There were 4.9 billion credit cards

sent in 2012.

In 2009 the U.S. had about

A person uses a credit card 119 times each year

An average of $88 is spent on each transaction, totalling $10,472 a year

$88

$156 Millioncredit card holders

With about 1.4 billion cards in circulation, each credit card

holder has eight credit cards.

SOURCESinventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/credit_cards.htmindexcreditcards.com/finance/creditcardstatistics/2011-report-on-credit-card-usage-facts-statistics.htmlblog.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.phpmoney-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

This infographic was created by Lexingtonlaw.com, a law firm that

helps consumers confront their credit report issues.

THE HISTORY OFCREDIT CARDS