Saturday, January 10, 2009

Plastic Money





The concept of paying different merchants using the same card was invented in 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank X. McNamara, founders of Diners Club, to consolidate multiple cards. The Diners Club, which was created partially through a merger with Dine and Sign, produced the first "general purpose" charge card, and required the entire bill to be paid with each statement.



That was followed by Carte Blanche and in 1958 by American Express which created a worldwide credit card network.

Bank of America created the BankAmericard in 1958, a product which, with its overseas affiliates, eventually evolved into the Visa system.

MasterCard came to being in 1966 when a group of credit-issuing banks established MasterCharge; it received a significant boost when Citibank merged its proprietary Everything Card, launched in 1967, into Master Charge in 1969.

The fractured nature of the U.S. banking system meant that credit cards became an effective way for those who were traveling around the country to move their credit to places where they could not directly use their banking facilities.

In 1966 Barclaycard in the UK launched the first credit card outside of the U.S.

A smart card, combining credit card and debit card properties. The 3 by 5 mm security chip embedded in the card is shoThwn enlarged in the inset. The contact pads on the card enable electronic access to the chip.


Incard, Avesco is some of the supplier and pioneers in supplying Smart card with Display!



Some of them even testing using LED display with film battery embedded in.


Fever

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