Credit has been with us since time immemorial. In the old days, stores would keep open accounts, or “tabs”, for their customers. The customers would take the merchandise they needed, the store owner would mark their purchases in a ledger, and the tab would be paid at a later date. .
• Western Union issued purchase cards to its best customers as early as 1914.
• With the advent of the automobile in the early 1900’s gas cards were issued by gas stations for fuel purchases and soon were accepted between competitors as payment. Thus the second innovation began… networking!
• Store credit cards were the next to make the scene. They increased the consumer base for retailers and gave the customer the convenience of “buy now and pay later.”
• Revolving credit came onto the scene in the 1930’s and 40’s. This practice actual started a series of changes. Up to that time customers were required to make payment of debt within a certain period of time. This practice changed by doing away with the repayment limits. The customer had to repay a certain amount of debt each month – the minimum monthly payment. Credit card Companies made revenue from fees and interest.
• In the 1950’s, the cards we know today: Visa, American Express, Diner’s Club, and others came into being. These major companies soared in popularity in the 1970’s and 80’s.
• In the early eighties, inflation began to outstrip interest rates, making credit cards a losing proposition for the banks that issued them. At the time, interest rates were limited by anti-usury laws. When South Dakota, discarded its anti-usury law, it opened the way to unlimited interest rates. The banks soon moved offices to South Dakota and Delaware which had also changes its usury laws. This made it possible for the Credit Card Industry using an “obscure” Supreme Court decision to export higher rates across the country.
• The current credit card practices can be traced to one man, Andrew Kahr. Before him, credit cards required customers to pay 5% of their balance every month. Kahr convinced banks to lower minimum payments while raising credit lines, which caused profits to soar. “High balances are more profitable than small balances,” says Kahr. The result as expected is that people charged more and strung it out over longer periods of time. The consumer suffered escalating penalties and fees which caused costumers to complain to no avail.
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