Credit cards are a very vital part of the average American lifestyle. Even so, they are also thought to be a tabu amongst many social gatherings. Before I can get into why charge cards are so vital to the average American, I feel it would help if I explained how charge cards were invented and put out to the American public.
During the great depression, lending institutions had to figure out a way to make more profit. There were already things like meal cards that were being used but these were not all purpose credit cards, they were more to be used in one place in a more controlled environment. Bank of America created the all purpose charge card and the way they promoted it was horrible. Many people went to their mail box to find this card that they knew nothing about and were told that they had a $5,000.00 line of credit. Even children and pets were mailed credit cards because the banks didn’t do much of a job on researching who they were going to give these charge cards to, instead they sent them to everyone including pets. This bank literally bombarded cities with this new all purpose charge card.
Now that you know a little bit about how credit cards came to be I would like to tell you why they become so important. Now that all these people had charge cards and they were using them, they started to gain debt. And, this amazing all purpose card started being more readily accepted at major stores. Many people backed themselves into a corner of charge card debt before they knew what happened. By this time, charge cards were being offered by more and more lending institutions making them more readily available to the average American consumer. Because so many consumers had hid themselves behind this wall of credit card debt, these cards had become just a way of life.
Because of the fact that credit cards had become a way of life to the average American, more and more companies started to make it harder to pay with cash. This started with hotels, they slowly made it almost impossible to reserve a room without a charge. This practice slowly moved to other things like air fair, and vacation plans. Now a days you can’t do any thing without a charge card. I believe however that this whole evolution of the importance of credit cards, although it is a sad story, is a good thing for Americans. Charge cards give us the cushion needed when we fall upon a rough patch in our lives and if these pieces of plastic were not so important they probably wouldn’t be so readily available when we need them the most.
Copyright © 2008 Credit Cards: from Choosing Best Credit Card to Application
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