topic Re: Credit Cards From The Past in SmorgasBoard

Credit Cards From The Past

RLFLOWS — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 19:10:43 GMT

Hello, I am new to this forum & have learned a lot from it.

I am in the beginning of rebuilding my credit.

With that said, I thought it would be interesting to know what credit cards we have had in the past (I'm about to turn 50 soon so a lot from my credit past are no longer around).

Mervyn's (My 1st card from 1989)

Montgomery Ward

Emporiam Capwell

Weinstocks

Washington Mutual Mastercard

Orchard Bank Mastercard

Bank Of America World Points

JCPenney

HSN

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

marty56 — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 10:46:55 GMT

My oldest card would have been JCP but it died when I went into a DMP porgram. I wish I had good credit back when they offered the Kiss Visa card. My oldest card is Chevron circa 1984.

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

thom02099 — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 16:03:26 GMT

Carte Blanche and AMEX Green were my first 2 cards, back in the mid-70s. Young and foolish, I thought I was going to travel the world and that these cards would help me achieve that dream. They didn't. Paper applications back then, mailed in, and then waiting weeks to find out if I got them. Not the instantaneous gratification of applications these days and knowing within 30 seconds if approved...

Also got a Discover Card early on, when they were backed by Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 03:14:52 GMT

I had a Montgomery Wards card way back in the days and also one with a picture of a plane taking off on it (one of the first CC to offer mileage rewards) back in the 80's for the life of me I don't remember the issuer.

You all remember this? So we went from this to just "tap" your card heheh...

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

UncleB — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 22:10:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I had a Montgomery Wards card way back in the days and also one with a picture of a plane taking off on it (one of the first CC to offer mileage rewards) back in the 80's for the life of me I don't remember the issuer.

You all remember this? So we went from this to just "tap" your card heheh...

Yep, I remember the knuckle-buster quite well.

A few places I worked used it in conjunction with one of these:

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:57:53 GMT

Wow! off topic on this but in my head I just started to smell the scent of mimeograph ink heheh

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

UncleB — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 01:07:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Wow! off topic on this but in my head I just started to smell the scent of mimeograph ink heheh

Ah yes, the old spirit duplicators... I'll never forget those.

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 01:35:23 GMT

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

ChargedUp — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 06:51:53 GMT

Back in the 90's I had "Citibank Classic" Visa which I PC'd to Drivers Edge. Robinsons-May, Bullocks Wilshire, Mervyns, Montgomery Ward, and Gottschalk's. My mother had one of the first Discover cards, Great Western Bank Visa (She worked for GWB/Wamu for decades in the home loans/mortgages dept.), MBNA MC, an Amex Gold and Optima (Her member since date was 80, I soo wish I had gotten on one of those cards!) and a Chase Manhattan Visa which must have had some insane limit on it, because she used that card for EVERYTHING! She also had a handful of gas station cards and a Sears card which looked like it had been laundered in the wrong cycle. (It was like half the size of a normal card).

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

UncleB — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 07:09:02 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
Back in the 90's I had "Citibank Classic" Visa which I PC'd to Drivers Edge. Robinsons-May, Bullocks Wilshire, Mervyns, Montgomery Ward, and Gottschalk's. My mother had one of the first Discover cards, Great Western Bank Visa (She worked for GWB/Wamu for decades in the home loans/mortgages dept.), MBNA MC, an Amex Gold and Optima (Her member since date was 80, I soo wish I had gotten on one of those cards!) and a Chase Manhattan Visa which must have had some insane limit on it, because she used that card for EVERYTHING! She also had a handful of gas station cards and a Sears card which looked like it had been laundered in the wrong cycle. (It was like half the size of a normal card).

I remember that old Sears card from when I was a kid...

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

ChargedUp — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 07:25:06 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@ChargedUp wrote:
Back in the 90's I had "Citibank Classic" Visa which I PC'd to Drivers Edge. Robinsons-May, Bullocks Wilshire, Mervyns, Montgomery Ward, and Gottschalk's. My mother had one of the first Discover cards, Great Western Bank Visa (She worked for GWB/Wamu for decades in the home loans/mortgages dept.), MBNA MC, an Amex Gold and Optima (Her member since date was 80, I soo wish I had gotten on one of those cards!) and a Chase Manhattan Visa which must have had some insane limit on it, because she used that card for EVERYTHING! She also had a handful of gas station cards and a Sears card which looked like it had been laundered in the wrong cycle. (It was like half the size of a normal card).
I remember that old Sears card from when I was a kid...

Yep, it was shaped like that, but the Sears logo was different. More like this one

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 13:38:43 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@ChargedUp wrote:
Back in the 90's I had "Citibank Classic" Visa which I PC'd to Drivers Edge. Robinsons-May, Bullocks Wilshire, Mervyns, Montgomery Ward, and Gottschalk's. My mother had one of the first Discover cards, Great Western Bank Visa (She worked for GWB/Wamu for decades in the home loans/mortgages dept.), MBNA MC, an Amex Gold and Optima (Her member since date was 80, I soo wish I had gotten on one of those cards!) and a Chase Manhattan Visa which must have had some insane limit on it, because she used that card for EVERYTHING! She also had a handful of gas station cards and a Sears card which looked like it had been laundered in the wrong cycle. (It was like half the size of a normal card).
I remember that old Sears card from when I was a kid...

Heh....I wouldn't have pictured Marlon Brando shopping at Sears! I guess it really was America's favourite department store!

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 14:00:53 GMT

I'll add mine since this thread appears to be still current:

I got my first card in 1998 (thank you Captial One) when I was 18-so even though that was 20 years ago, it is too current for me to really have too many shocker cards but I will admit that I am getting older lol.

My only stories I guess would be:

Mervyn's charge card

My 1998 Citi Diamond Preferred was a Silver Classic Visa and had the original Citibank logo with the star logo all the way until 2004.

My 1999 Citi Thankyou Preferred started life out as an AT&T Universal Card-I was listed as a Charter Member

My family:

I distinctly remember my grandmother pulling out a stack of (mostly) store cards from her purse-they were held together by a rubber band

My parents were some of the original Discover Card cardholders-I still have my dad's unused, mint condition 1986 Discover Card

My parents had what was called The Rocky Mountain Bankcard System (Visa) which is today US Bank

My mom had a Choice card. The Choice card was supposed to be Citibank's new credit card to rival Visa and MasterCard. It flopped and Citibank rebranded them as Choice Visa and Choice MasterCard. My mom had the Choice Visa.

I think people older than me (and maybe even people my age) will remember that the 1980s (and earlier) were a time when people had more store cards than anything else. Back in the 1980s, each state more or less had their own department stores instead of today's national stores-my parents and grandparents had every charge card to all the main stores at the mall. Moreover, before interstate banking, our parents or those of you older than me, had Visa's and MasterCards issued by local banks rather than national banks. That is one of the reasons I hold a Visa from my local bank. Its one of the last local banks in Denver of considerable size (that is both older than me and survived interstate banking and the mergers and acquisitions that came with it) and is a throwback to a different era.

Also, I do not know about you all, but I have kept every one of my credit cards (and most debit cards) once they expire. I have a three-ringed binder filled with all those cards, cataloged by bank and in chronological order, in business card holders. Its really wild to go in there from time to time to look at how those cards have changed and evolved over the past almost 21 years. Yeah, I'm a major nerd but I am willing to bet a lot of you wish you had done the same

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 19:21:39 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Wow! off topic on this but in my head I just started to smell the scent of mimeograph ink heheh
Ah yes, the old spirit duplicators... I'll never forget those.

Who are you fooling??? You are just a "young pup" ... or is that a "wolf in sheeps clothing"?

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Gunnerboy — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 03:21:55 GMT

Bon Marche' (Seattle-based department store chain later rebranded as Macy's)

Citibank Classic Visa

Bank of New York Mastercard

First Interstate Bank Mastercard

Seafirst Bank Mastercard (Seattle-based bank acquired by BankAmerica Corp. Also, the first bank that I'd ever heard of to put cardholder photo on front of card!)

FirstUSA Platinum Visa

Also, back in the day, I used to target Mastercards because I used to think the logo was cooler looking than Visa!

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 11:05:27 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@ChargedUp wrote:
Back in the 90's I had "Citibank Classic" Visa which I PC'd to Drivers Edge. Robinsons-May, Bullocks Wilshire, Mervyns, Montgomery Ward, and Gottschalk's. My mother had one of the first Discover cards, Great Western Bank Visa (She worked for GWB/Wamu for decades in the home loans/mortgages dept.), MBNA MC, an Amex Gold and Optima (Her member since date was 80, I soo wish I had gotten on one of those cards!) and a Chase Manhattan Visa which must have had some insane limit on it, because she used that card for EVERYTHING! She also had a handful of gas station cards and a Sears card which looked like it had been laundered in the wrong cycle. (It was like half the size of a normal card).
I remember that old Sears card from when I was a kid...

Hmm ... when was that? You must be older than dirt ... As an aside, had the Sears Card you pictured in the post!

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

Thomas_Thumb — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 17:34:59 GMT

My past card from the 1970s. Got this when I was a part time employee back in HS.

My past cards from the 1980s

My dad frequented Standard Oil (later AMOCO spin off), Montgomery Ward and Sears. He only purchased gas at Standard Oil stations. My mom was a regular shopper at Dayton's and Donaldsons buying clothes for seven kids. Here are some images of cards they used in the 1960s and 1970s.

1960s

1970s

...

Re: Credit Cards From The Past

SOGGIE — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 18:44:32 GMT

The 1970's original Master CHARGE - 'The Interbank Card.' In no way, shape or form is this telling of my age. LOL