BBB Etymology - Credit Card

The term was coined in 1888 by an author named Edward Bellamy, who wrote a fictional account of a young man who wakes up in the year 2000 and discovers that cash has been dumped in favor of "a credit corresponding to his share of the annual product of the nation...and a credit card is issued to him with which he procures at the public storehouses...whatever he desires, whenever he desires it."

The credit card was the successor of a variety of merchant credit schemes. It was first used in the 1920s, in the United States, specifically to sell fuel to a growing number of automobile owners. In 1938 several companies started to accept each others cards.

The concept of paying merchants using a card was invented in 1950 with Diners Club's invention of the charge card, which is similar but required the entire bill to be paid with each statement; it was followed shortly thereafter by American Express.