Changes

Charge cards which required customers to pay the balance in full every month have been in existence since the late 1800s.  The first true credit card was invented in 1958 by Bank of America.  The BankAmericard eventually became so widespread that it was spun off from Bank of America and became the agency now known as Visa.  Credit card use became increasingly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Before credit cards, travel was more difficult because travelers needed to carry money, purchase travelers checks, or make special arrangements in advance with banks in the cities they were traveling to.  Mail order purchases were made by check, and were very slow, because most companies would wait for the check to clear before shipping the product.

Charge cards which required customers to pay the balance in full every month have been in existence since the late 1800s.  The first true credit card was invented in 1958 by Bank of America.  The BankAmericard eventually became so widespread that it was spun off from Bank of America and became the agency now known as Visa.  Credit card use became increasingly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Before credit cards, travel was more difficult because travelers needed to carry money, purchase travelers checks, or make special arrangements in advance with banks in the cities they were traveling to.  Mail order purchases were made by check, and were very slow, because most companies would wait for the check to clear before shipping the product.

Today, credit cards are governed by four major organizations: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.  Visa and Mastercard allow banks and credit card companies to issue cards for use on their respective networks, whereas American Express (AMEX) and Discover issue and service cards themselves.  144 million Americans have a general purpose credit card, but there are approximately 641 million cards in circulation.  Consumers revolved approximately $904 billion in June 2007,<ref>http://www.creditcards.com/statistics/credit-card-industry-facts-and-personal-debt-statistics.php</ref> although it is estimated that only 55 million Americans pay their credit card bill in full every month, another 35 million pay only the minimum.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/</ref>

Today, credit cards are governed by four major organizations: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.  Visa and MasterCard allow banks and credit card companies to issue cards for use on their respective networks, whereas American Express (AMEX) and Discover issue and service cards themselves.  144 million Americans have a general purpose credit card, but there are approximately 641 million cards in circulation.  Consumers revolved approximately $904 billion in June 2007,<ref>http://www.creditcards.com/statistics/credit-card-industry-facts-and-personal-debt-statistics.php</ref> although it is estimated that only 55 million Americans pay their credit card bill in full every month, another 35 million pay only the minimum.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/</ref>

   

   

==Statistics==

==Statistics==