Did you know that the first credit card was issued in 1951. History tells us that Credit was first used in Assyria, Babylon and Egypt about 3,000 years ago.
Centuries later, the bill of exchange, which was the forerunner of banknotes, was established in the 14th century. It then became the practice that debts were settled by the payment of one-third of the value in cash and two-thirds as a bill of exchange. Paper money followed only in the 17th century.
The first advertisement for credit was placed in 1730 by Christopher Thornton, who offered furniture that could be paid off weekly.
However, from the 18th century until the early part of the 20th, “Tallymen” sold clothes in return for small weekly payments. They were called “Tallymen” because they kept a record or tally of what people had bought on a wooden stick. One side of the stick was marked with notches, which represented the quantum of debt owed, while the other side was a record of payments.
In the 1920s, a “Shopper’s Plate” – a sort of “buy now, pay later” system – was introduced in the USA, though it could only be used in the shops which issued it.
In 1950, Diners Club and American Express launched their charge cards in the USA, what was generally recognised as the first “plastic money”. In 1951, Diners Club issued the first credit card to 200 customers who could use it at 27 restaurants in New York. It was, however, the establishment of standards for the magnetic strip in 1970 that heralded the arrival of the credit card as a part of the information age.
Though amateurish, magnetic stripes on cards were first used in the early 1960’s, when the London Transit Authority installed a magnetic stripe system.
Via Didyouknow
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