What was the World Like Before Credit Cards?
November 29, 2006
Where were you when the first credit card was born?
Coming from Generation X, credit cards have always been a part of my personal finance world and life in general. I was reading about The Secret History of the Credit Card over at Get Rich Slowly and started to think about all the ways the credit card has changed our world, for better and for worse.
Such a basic instrument of debt has affected millions of lives over the past three decades. I’m curious to know, what was the world like before credit cards?
Credit cards have been involved in my life since I was a teenager, and before that they were certainly present in the world. I’m with you — I never existed in a world without credit cards. Before credit cards, there still was such a thing as personal debt. It seems the credit card industry insitutionalized the idea and allowed debt to become more socially acceptable.
Interesting questions. I have no idea personally, and google tells me that Diners Club issued the first card in 1951. But I wonder if that was really a credit card and not a charge card? I imagine though that people either paid cash for things (most often) or were extended personal credit in the form of “tabs” from people who knew them personally.
What did people do when they had an unexpected medical emergency and didn’t have cash to cover it?
What is the first thing you do when your wallet or purse is stolen? Probaly call and cancel your credit card.
I hardly ever carry cash but I guess before credit cards you had to have money in your wallet. If you lost your wallet, you lost the money.
The world was a much uglier place… $700 purses and $300 jeans were much harder to come by! =P
[…] The Carnival of Debt Reduction #64 is up and running over at Necessary Virtues. Credit cards have brought some positives and many negatives to the world of personal debt. I ask the question, What Was The World Like Before Credit Cards? […]
I’m a geezer. Back in the old days, people paid with cash, wrote a check, or signed on the dotted line, to be billed later. Honesty, thrift and common sense seemed more prevalent back then, and the pace of life was slower. It really wasn’t so bad.