What payment system was originally called BankAmericard?

In mid-September 1958, Bank of America (BofA) launched its BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California, with an initial mailing of 60,000 unsolicited credit cards. The original idea was the brainchild of BofA's in-house product development think tank, the Customer Services Research Group, and its leader, Joseph P. Williams. Williams convinced senior BofA executives in 1956 to let him pursue what became the world's first successful mass mailing of unsolicited credit cards (that is actual working cards, not mere applications) to a large population.

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64 Comments

Charles Butterworth

credit cards are what you make of them.

MaryAnn Jensen

Credit cards are evil !!!! Rather pay cash ( when I have the money ) !!!! No bills no worries !!!!

Jeff Squires

they didn't work very well to draw lines of cocaine because the coke would stick to it dew to the static electricity I know from days gone by kid don`t do this at home.

Sherry Powell

only knew this answer cuz I had one "back in the day"... today I am "card free" LOL.

Patty K

MaryAnn Jensen, I agree, but unfortunately banks do not. I had no credit cards, finding it easier to use the money I had in the bank. That way, I knew what I had and how much I could spend without going broke. I have memory problems, so cold hard cash was much easier than trying to keep track of what was spent, when did I have to pay back and so on. Then I tried to get a loan to buy a house. The bank refused because I had no credit history. My name was flagged as an alias!

joycekingsmith

Credit cards are an addiction. You might as well smoke hash. You're feeding the ID.

robert karel

The colors are the same, Visa. Pay it off every month. Don’t buy on time if you can’t pay. Lesson learned.

Suraya Choudhury

I put American Express !

Corey Taylor

Did anyone notice from the picture that Elvis's card expired just six months before he did?

Chris Braid

Took a punt from the colours of the card. Got it!

Helen LoBosco

Kenney Devey, Did someone steal or just thought of the same idea?

Fran Streeter

All these questions are geared to Americans! Please not that it's not only Americans who do these quizzes and ask questions more in line with General Knowledge,, rather than USA knowledge.

vlc

I remember the days when banks and department stores use to just send you a credit card without you asking for one. I was a kid then and I remember mom frequently cutting up credit cards with dads name on it that they got but hadn't asked for.

Kenney Devey

Back in the mid 70s I had 2 vegetable shops in Merseyside. I had a card from Barclays Bank. When you went into a store to buy and give your card in, to clear the funds the person would behind the counter would pick the phone up and relay the card number, from the other end they would ask if the card holder was male or female. And that was it. I was reading how much banks were losing from the cards, stolen etc. I came up with an idea of card holders having a number code of 4 numbers. There were a combination of a few million with 4 numbers in. I called my bank Barklays and someone from head office came to my house for the meeting. I explained that the customer buying could give their number in for clearance over the phone. He said that the worker in the store would have the customers number, which was not good. I could not get it over to him that they would have to know the full card number also. And it would stop the customer card from being used by someone who used it. The were not interested but the number system I thought of was eventually used.