can you imagine a world without credit cards? until the 1950 a world without the use of cash was simply inconceivable. today an economic universe without
plastic would be impractical. whether it's for business or for leisure, the credit card is used to pay for goods and services from new york to beijing
It all started in 1949 when Frank McNamara scheduled a business dinner in a New York restaurant.
Before he left for the dinner, Frank changed suits. When the waiter presented the check,
Frankrealized that he had lift his wallet in the other suit. The embarrassing situation was solved,
but that night Frank asked himself : "Why should people be limited to spending what they are
carrying in cash, instead of being able to spend what they can afford?" A year later,
Frank returned to the same restaurant in New York. When the cheak came, Frank handed the waiter
a small cardboard card, a Diner's Club Card, and signed for the meal. This event is known in the
credit card industty as the "First Supper. "Soon the concept of "charging it" was picked up by
merchants as an alternative form of payment to the use of cash. By 1952, the Diner's Club Card
was accepted by thousands of businesses across the United States, and it became a status symbol
for those who carried it.
The Diner's Club Card soon became a cultural icon. Hollywood cashed in on the "charge-it craze"
with the 1962 movie The Man from the Diner's Club. In it, an employee at Diner's Club issues a credit
card to a well-known gangster and has to get it back in order to keep his job. The Ideal Toy
Corporation joned in the Diner's Club game. The idea of the credit card quickly expanded outsde the
first international charge card in 1952 with franchises in Canada, France, and Cuba. In 1955, Western
Airlines became the first airiline to accept the Diner's Club Card. Ten years later, the card was
accepted by every airline in the United states. Diner's Club expanded its services to hotels, car rantals,
and other businesses.