Credit Cards

Credit cards have been in existence since 1951 when the Diner’s Club was introduced. This was to eliminate the need for individual accounts to be set up at various merchants to be able to run up credit rather than paying for the goods straight away. This was closely followed by the introduction of the American Express card and then in 1958 the Bank of America released the BankAmericard which became later know as the VISA card. Mastercard was the next big card to be released. As the popularity of credit cards increases as an easy way for people to acquire an unsecured personal loan, the variations available have also increased. There are now not only the big credit card companies such as VISA offering cards, but also all the financial institutions and the lending companies offering accounts.

Since there is so much choice for a credit card today you are able to shop around for the best deal for you. There are different interest rates charged on the outstanding balance and also differing levels of credit that is available. Many people get round the high interest rates that are charged by moving all of their credit card debt to another card where you may be offered no interest for an initial period of time.

Card security is becoming more of an issue as there are more transactions being carried out online without the card holder present. There is more use of the security code found on the card, usually on the signature strip, to try and stop fraud. Even with all the measures that are taken there is still a problem. The latest security feature the financial institutions have implemented to combat fraud is the Chip and Pin or the Smart Card set up. This has seen fraud reduce with the need for the unique PIN number to be keyed in at the time of the transaction.