"business to Diners Club. The move gave enRoute cardholders access to the existing Diners Club network of 2.1 million merchants at the time, while earning existing Diners Club Canada cardholders Aeroplan miles. For several years following the business transaction, Diners Club credit cards were marketed as in Canada ""Diners Club/en route"". Today, ""enRoute"" remains the name of Air Canada's monthly inflight magazine, with a circulation of 116,244, as of 2016. EnRoute (credit card) enRoute was a credit card issued by Air Canada until 1992, when the airline sold its credit card division to Diners Club. The card was developed only"
"entertainment charge card, had been introduced in 1950, and American Express and Carte Blanche followed in 1958, but all of these offerings had to have bills repaid in 30 days and were accepted by a limited number of vendors. By the mid-1950s, Williams was the senior vice president in charge of a group that had the unofficial task of creating the nation's first all-purpose credit card. Studying previous failures and analyzing the successes by Sears, Roebuck and Company and Mobil in offering credit to their customers, the team led by Williams conceived of a set of features — an 18%"
"expenses on some 70 railroads including a number (such as Southern Pacific) that did not honor the Rail Travel Card. Jan. 27, 1947 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) introduced the first railroad credit card in the United States. By late February 1947 the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (KATY) introduced its own credit card, which it also claimed as being the first. Beginning in 1954 the New Haven Railroad offered its own credit card, the New Haven Railroad Rail Charge Card. It continued to be honored until the New Haven merged with the Penn Central Jan. 1, 1969. It may have been"
"The Everything Card The First National City Charge Service, marketed as The Everything Card, was an early credit card introduced by First National City Bank (now Citibank) in the eastern United States in 1967. It was intended as a response to the BankAmericard (today's Visa card), issued by BankAmerica. Issued under the initiative of National City Bank President Walter B. Wriston, the card followed the bank's purchase of an interest in the Carte Blanche charge card. However, the card proved to be limited by its regional scope, as it was tied to the area surrounding the bank's New York City"
"have an embossed bank card number complying with the ISO/IEC 7812 numbering standard. In 1914, Western Union opened the first charge account for its customers and provided them with a paper identification. There were many larger department stores which opened store charge accounts for their customers with paper identification, enabling the customer to make purchases on credit provided by the store. However, these accounts could be used only within the store which issued them. In 1950, Diners Club began opening charge accounts with paper identification cards, directed at the travel and entertainment markets. The novel feature of these cards was"
"in 1987. The Everything Card The First National City Charge Service, marketed as The Everything Card, was an early credit card introduced by First National City Bank (now Citibank) in the eastern United States in 1967. It was intended as a response to the BankAmericard (today's Visa card), issued by BankAmerica. Issued under the initiative of National City Bank President Walter B. Wriston, the card followed the bank's purchase of an interest in the Carte Blanche charge card. However, the card proved to be limited by its regional scope, as it was tied to the area surrounding the bank's New"
"1958 by American Express which created a worldwide credit card network (although these were initially charge cards that later acquired credit card features). Until 1958, no one had been able to successfully establish a ""revolving credit"" financial system in which a card issued by a third-party bank was being generally accepted by a large number of merchants, as opposed to merchant-issued revolving cards accepted by only a few merchants. There had been a dozen attempts by small American banks, but none of them were able to last very long. In September 1958, Bank of America launched the ""BankAmericard"" in Fresno,"
"cofounder Frank McNamara was dining with clients and realized he had left his wallet in another suit. His wife paid the tab, and McNamara thought of a multipurpose charge card as a way to avoid similar embarrassments in the future. He discussed the idea with the restaurant owner at the table, and the following day with his lawyer Ralph Schneider and friend Alfred Bloomingdale. McNamara returned to the same restaurant the following February, in 1950, and paid for his meal using a cardboard charge card and a signature. The story became well-known, Diners Club official history referring to this meal"
"trying to book hotel rooms. Diners Club International Diners Club International (DCI), founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company owned by Discover Financial Services. Formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider, Matty Simmons, and Alfred Bloomingdale, it was the first independent credit card company in the world, and it established the concept of a self-sufficient company producing credit cards for travel and entertainment. Diners Club International and its franchises service individuals from around the globe with operations in 59 countries. The idea for Diners Club was conceived at the Majors Cabin Grill restaurant in New York"
"consider the possibility. At the end of 1957, American Express CEO Ralph Reed decided to get into the card business, and by the launch date of October 1, 1958, public interest had become so significant that 250,000 cards were issued prior to the official launch date. The card was launched with an annual fee of $6, $1 higher than Diners Club, to be seen as a premium product. The first cards were made of paper, with the account number and cardmember's name typed. In 1959, American Express began issuing embossed ISO/IEC 7810 plastic cards, an industry first. In 1966, American"
"numbers on the sales slip, instead of various kind of handwriting style. Because the customer's name was not on the charge coin, almost anyone could use it. This sometimes led to a case of mistaken identity, either accidentally or intentionally, by acting on behalf of the charge account owner or out of malice to defraud both the charge account owner and the merchant. Beginning in the 1930s, merchants started to move from charge coins to the newer Charga-Plate. The Charga-Plate, developed in 1928, was an early predecessor of the credit card and was used in the U.S. from the 1930s"
"do so were introduced in Congress and some state legislatures. Some succeeded in the former goal, but those that sought to eliminate interest rate caps entirely failed. The term ""credit card"" had been used and proposed by utopian author Edward Bellamy in his 1887 book ""Looking Backward"". The first realizations of this model came during the Depression with Chargaplate, meant to encourage customers to spend money by introducing an alternative to cash and checks. Diners Club evolved in the early 50s as the first credit card company. In 1958, Bank of America had introduced BankAmeriCard (today's Visa), the first credit"
"the all-purpose credit card (in the sense that his project was not cancelled outright), not in coming up with the idea. By the mid-1950s, the typical middle-class American already maintained revolving credit accounts with several different merchants, which was clearly inefficient and inconvenient due to the need to carry so many cards and pay so many separate bills each month. The need for a unified financial instrument was already evident to the American financial services industry, but no one could figure out how to do it. There were already charge cards like Diners Club (which had to be paid in"
"Diners Club International Diners Club International (DCI), founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company owned by Discover Financial Services. Formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider, Matty Simmons, and Alfred Bloomingdale, it was the first independent credit card company in the world, and it established the concept of a self-sufficient company producing credit cards for travel and entertainment. Diners Club International and its franchises service individuals from around the globe with operations in 59 countries. The idea for Diners Club was conceived at the Majors Cabin Grill restaurant in New York City in 1949. Diners Club"
"Apple Pay, respectively) meaning that cardholders can use their American Express-issued cards to pay at establishments where NFC payments are accepted. American Express is best known for its iconic Green, Gold, and Platinum charge cards. In 1958, American Express issued its first charge card, which required payment at the end of every month. In 1966, the company issued its first gold card, in an effort to cater to the upper echelon of business travel. Its platinum card debuted in 1984. In 1999, American Express introduced the Centurion Card, often referred to as the ""black card,"" which caters to an even"
"of customers with cards that require the monthly balance to be paid in full. Towards the end of the 1960s, Diners Club also faced competition from banks that issued revolving credit cards through Bank of America's BankAmericard (later renamed Visa), and Interbank Master Charge (later renamed MasterCard). Diners Club began early on to allow franchises of the Diners Club name, at first in Europe and later throughout the world, for many years eclipsing the BankAmericard or Interbank Master Charge networks abroad. Starting in 1968, the American Oil Company, better known publicly as Amoco, also issued, for a time, its own"
"owner, Citicorp, was not willing to accept the eventual estimated costs of establishing another national credit card, after Sears had spent an estimated USD$80 million creating its Discover Card. Its fate was similar to that of Citibank's first credit card, the ""First National City Charge Service"" (or ""The Everything Card""), introduced on the East Coast in 1967 to compete with BankAmericard (today's Visa) but which became part of Master Charge (now MasterCard) in 1969. Choice (credit card) Choice was a credit card test marketed by Citibank in the United States, announced in 1977, and first issued in 1978. It was"
"that do not need to be paid in full every month. There is no late fee payable so long as the minimum payment is made at specified intervals (usually every thirty days). The balance of the account accrues interest, which may be backdated to the date of initial purchase. Charge cards are typically issued without spending limits, but credit cards usually have a specified credit limit that the cardholder may not exceed. Though originally charge account identification was paper-based, in 1959 American Express became the first charge card operator to issue embossed plastic cards to ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 standard. Cards"
"establishments seven percent and billed cardholders $5 a year. In 1952, McNamara sold his interest in Diners Club to his partners for $200,000. The first plastic Diners Club card was introduced in 1961; by the mid-1960s, Diners Club had 1.3 million cardholders. Diners Club International was acquired by Citigroup in 1981 and by Discover Financial Services in April 2008. Diners Club's monopoly was short-lived, as American Express and Carte Blanche (which later partnered with Diners Club) began to compete with Diners Club in the travel and entertainment (T&E) card market. American Express now dominates the ""member card"" arena, providing millions"
"by the card operator were lower than the store's cost in running their own store accounts. In 1957, American Express also entered the field, and in 1959 was the first company to issue embossed plastic charge cards to ISO/IEC 7810 standards. In Europe, the MasterCard-affiliated Maestro brand (which is a debit card rather than a charge card) replaced the European Eurocheque brand for payment cards in 2002. Many Eurocheque cards, particularly in such countries as Austria and Germany, were charge cards branded with the Eurocheque logo. In addition, the European Eurocard, issued as the competitor for American Express was, and"
"an Atlanta-based supermarket chain. American Express entered the credit card industry in 1958 with its own product, a purple charge card for travel and entertainment expenses. By the time Waters was hired in 1961, The American Express Card was number two in the industry behind Diners Club, still unprofitable, and management was unsure about what to do with the business. They considered merging with Diners Club and also forming a joint venture with Hilton Hotels. The card at that time was primarily accepted in restaurants, as hotels, car rental companies and airlines were either reluctant to accept credit cards or"
"issued in the United Kingdom though; Diners Club and American Express launched their charge cards in 1962 and 1963 respectively. Barclaycard was originally a BankAmericard licensee, and became part of the Visa network on its formation in 1975. In July 2003, Barclaycard took over the United Kingdom wing of the American Company Providian National Bank, known as Monument, when it was sold off due to financial irregularities of its American parent company. Barclaycard sold the Monument business and premises to Compucredit in April 2007. In March 2011, Barclays announced that it would be buying the British credit card business arm"
"world, and in 1976, all BankAmericard licensees united themselves under the common brand Visa. In 1966, the ancestor of MasterCard was born when a group of banks established Master Charge to compete with BankAmericard; it received a significant boost when Citibank merged its own Everything Card, launched in 1967, into Master Charge in 1969. Early credit cards in the U.S., of which BankAmericard was the most prominent example, were mass-produced and mass mailed unsolicited to bank customers who were thought to be good credit risks. They have been mailed off to unemployables, drunks, narcotics addicts and to compulsive debtors, a"
"base of operations. In 1969, the card was absorbed into Master Charge (now known as MasterCard), another card that had been developed by a membership association of four banks, the Interbank Card Association, which National City Bank joined. Citibank, as First National City Bank came to be known in 1976, made a further attempt in 1977 to create a proprietary credit card that was not tied to either Master Charge or Visa. The Choice card was, like the Everything Card, a regional credit card issued only by Citibank. It also proved unsuccessful, and its cards were reissued as Visa cards"
"the use of railroads that did not on their own accept the card that it would still be honored provided travel started on one of the railroads that did honor it. In announcing its introduction H.B. Rogers of the Erie Railroad explained ""For more than a year ... the railroads, have been discussing methods for making travel easier and more convenient. This credit plan will help to do it"". April 1, 1947 the card became effective, initially honored by 45 railroads. Promotional materials stated ""This card will be honored by participating railroads for all rail and Pullman transportation (except commutation)"
"revolving credit cards which charge interest on new purchases if so much as $1 was carried over). The card was discontinued a few years later; the now discontinued One from American Express card offered a similar feature called ""Interest Protection"". From early 1980s until the early 1990s, American Express was known for cutting its interchange fee (also known as a ""discount rate"") to merchants and restaurants if they accepted only American Express and no other credit or charge cards. This prompted competitors such as Visa and Mastercard to cry foul for a while as the tactics ""locked"" restaurants into American"
"card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel ""Looking Backward"". Bellamy used the term ""credit card"" eleven times in this novel, although this referred to a card for spending a citizen's dividend from the government, rather than borrowing, making it more similar to a Debit card. Charge coins and other similar items were used from the late 19th century to the 1930s. They came in various shapes and sizes; with materials made out of celluloid (an early type of plastic), copper, aluminum, steel, and other types of whitish metals. Each charge coin usually had"
"industry illustrates the concept. Diners Club was the first modern payment card, introduced in 1950. To create this product Diners Club had to get two groups of customers on board. Consumers who wanted to pay with a card and merchants who wanted to accept payment with this card. These two groups of customers each wanted the card to consummate transactions between them. Any type of dating environment also exemplifies economic catalyst. A nightclub needs men and women and facilitates their meeting and interacting. Catalysts are the businesses at the heart of the new economics of two-sided markets. They are multi-sided"
"honored for a brief period by the Penn Central after the merger; subsequently they shifted over to accepting the Rail Travel Card. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) also introduced its own credit card in 1954. All four cards generally covered meals, beverages, hotels and auto rentals. As with Rail Travel Card, C&O and KATY arranged so their cards would be honored for the use of travel that started on their systems even if it included continuing on other railroads; in the case of the KATY this was subsequently done via an arrangement with the railroads that accepted Rail Travel Card."
"being phased out in favor of Diners Club. Parent company Citigroup (also known as ""Citi"") was formed in 1998 with the merger of Citicorp and the Travelers Group. Citi issued a premium Diners Club card in 2000, naming it the Diners Club Carte Blanche card. It was an upper-level charge card on par with the American Express Platinum Card. The card carries a US$300 annual fee as of April 2015 and offers an extensive menu of perks. Diners Club requires payment from individual cardholders in full within 30 days; corporate accounts can pay within 60 days without penalty. By 2005,"
"used on streetcars built by the St. Louis Car Company. Early models would catch coins and then sort them once the fare was accepted or ""rung up"". Later models after World War II had a counting function that would allow the fares to be added together so that a total per shift could be maintained by the transit revenue department. Fareboxes did not change again until around 1984, when fares in many larger cities reached $1.00 and the first dollar bill accepting farebox was put into service. In 2006, new fareboxes had the capability of accepting cash, credit, or smartcard"
"as ""The First Supper"" even though, as stated following, some disputed accounts refer to it actually having been a lunch, and is credited by historians as the beginnings of contemporary credit. Various versions of the story differ about whether it was a lunch or dinner at which McNamara forgot his wallet, and whether the bill was paid on loan or McNamara waited for his wife to drive his wallet to him. Some journalists later credited Alfred Bloomingdale with the idea for Diners Club. McNamara and his attorney, Ralph Schneider, founded Diners Club International on February 8, 1950, with $1.5 million"
"such as swimming pools or color TV (a luxury in the 1960s), motels were built in wild and impressive designs. In-room gimmicks such as the coin-operated Magic Fingers vibrating bed were briefly popular; introduced in 1958, these were largely removed in the 1970s due to vandalism of the coin boxes. The American Hotel Association (which had briefly offered a Universal Credit Card in 1953 as forerunner to the modern American Express card) became the American Hotel & Motel Association in 1963. As many motels vied for their place on busy highways, the beach-front motel instantly became a success. In major"