1. The first widely accepted plastic charge card was issued in 1958 by American Express.
2. Credit card companies earned $55.2 billion in credit card fees and $90.1 billion in interest in 2006.
3. Both Visa and MasterCard have no liability policies with regards to fraudulent use.
4. Visa actually stands Visa International Service Association
5. In 1984, MasterCard was the first to use a hologram on its cards to deter fraud.
6. You do not have to sign anything in order to accept the cardholder agreement. By using the credit card you have agreed to the terms and conditions of the card.
7. Credit cards are a uniform shape and size. Their dimensions are governed by the ISO 7810 standard, an international standard for identification cards.
8. Visa was first offered by Bank of America in 1958.
9. The logo of Visa is representative of the blue sky and golden hills of California, where the Bank of America was established.
10. In 1976, the name was changed to Visa
11. Under the merchant agreements with Visa, MasterCard and American express, a merchant cannot ask for your personal information such as home phone number, home address etc.
12. The average US household receives 6 credit card offers per month.
13. Anyone under 18 cannot be forced to repay charges on a credit card they own.
14. Both instant approval credit cards and rewards credit cards are growing in popularity.
15. Credit card numbers conform to the Luhn algorithm, which is just a simple checksum test on the number. What you do is start from the right and double each second digit (1111 becomes 2121), then add them all together, and you should end with a number evenly divisible by ten. If it doesn’t, it’s not a valid credit card number.
source:http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/50-fun-facts-about-credit-cards.html
