00:00 Credit cards are one of the most common forms of payment today, but how did they originate and who came up with the idea?

01:59 Credit has a long history, with the concept of extending credit based on trust and personal relationships dating back centuries, but the process of making credit more efficient began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with major department stores.

03:45 The need for a multi-purpose charge card that could be accepted by any merchant arose in 1949 when Frank McNamara forgot his wallet and his wife had to pay the bill at a restaurant.

05:32 The Diners Club and American Express cards were the first multi-purpose charge cards, not credit cards, and were primarily used for payment processing rather than giving loans, while the Franklin National Bank issued the first payment card tied to a line of credit.

07:16 Bank America issued the Bank America card in 1958, which quickly gained 2 million card holders and 20,000 businesses, but faced high rates of delinquency; they eventually solved the problem by licensing the card to different banks and consolidated them under the brand Visa, while competing banks created MasterCharge, later renamed MasterCard, and Barclays issued the first credit card outside of the United States in 1966.

09:04 Legislation in 1970 prevented banks from sending out credit cards without applications, and advancements in technology, such as magnetic stripes and EMV chips, were introduced to reduce credit card fraud and verify the validity of cards, while the development of the FICO score in 1989 allowed credit issuing agencies to assess someone's credit history.

10:58 Smartphones have become the next frontier for credit cards, offering increased security and convenience through systems like Apple Pay and Google Pay, while frequent flyer programs have been a major incentive for people to get credit cards.