Did You Ever Think About How Your Credit Card Works

Category: Finance, Credit.

Did you ever think about how your Credit Card works?

It means a lot to a great number of people around the globe. Have you ever wondered how a piece of thin plastic allows you to purchase expensive merchandise and services without worrying about carrying cash? The majority of United States consumers have at least one credit card and usually more than four or five. For example, if you want to rent a car then you do require a major credit card. These cards also work as your source of identification. Used intelligently this card can give ease and comfort, and it allows you to make purchases with almost a month to pay for them prior to finance charges. They do carry a balance from month to month and some times even from year to year.

This sounds excellent but in reality many card consumers don t take this benefit. Carrying a balance on your credit card may cost you a whooping 24 percent interest charge. We will discuss the history and technical aspects behind a Credit Card. Most of the people find it very hard to resist this piece of plastic. Starting from scratch, a credit card is thin piece of plastic, typically 3- 1/ 8 inches by 2- 1/ 8 inches in size, which contains ID information like a signature or photo, and authorizes the individual printed on it to charge for purchases or services to his account. Users pay their bills on a monthly basis plus the annual fees. Today, the information on the card can be read and used on ATMs, store readers and the Internet.

The earliest Credit Card that could be used in a variety of stores and businesses was introduced by Diners Club in 1950 and after eight years American Express came with its universal credit card called" Don t Leave Home without it! " Then came the Bank of America in 1959 which was renamed as Visa later on. Now the Credit Card Number system- although the associated cards like department store cards have their own numbering system- but the ANSI standard is used by most of the national card systems. MasterCard followed them with the name of Master Charge earlier. A total of 16 digits are there on the front of Cards. Usually, digits from two to six stand for Bank Number, digits from seven to fourteen stand for Account Number and last digit is a check digit. The first digit in the Credit Card Number signifies the system: 3- American Express and Diners Cub. 4- Visa. 5- Master Card. 6- Discover Card. This system varies from bank to bank.

The cardholder indicates his/ her approval to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and signifying the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number( PIN) . When a purchase is completed, the credit card consumer agrees to pay the card issuer. Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a Card/ Cardholder Not Present (CNP) transaction. The authentication is performed using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale( POS) system with a communications link to the merchant s acquiring bank. Electronic authentication systems allow merchants to confirm that the card is valid and the credit card customer has enough credit to cover the purchase, allowing the verification to happen at the time of purchase. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card.

In my next upcoming articles you will find more information concerning Credit Cards.

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