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What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

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psychic
Moderator Emeritus

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?



@Anonymous wrote:


@haulingthescoreup wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:
This thread brings back memories. I still remember the days when you just handed your card to the cashier and they place the card in a metal machine that would imprint your card onto a triplicate carbon sales slip. They hardly ever called in to check on your card. Does anyone remember those old manual machines they used?



Absolutely! They made this great "crunch, crunch" sound. And a lot of store cards were different sizes from the usual. My mother had a Goldsmith's card that was as wide as a standard card, but only about 2/3 as tall.

After a while, the raised numbers on the cards would start to wear off, and you'd have to replace it, because the account number wouldn't go on the carbons properly.

I remember that with the numbers wearing off (lol),  My Buffum's card was that way (wide but very short)!


 

As a result of those metal imprinting machines, cards also used to develop many cracks.

I recall how it became practice for you to ask for the carbons back, so you could personally rip them up.  Remember how people were rummaging through merchants' dumpsters to find the carbons, so they could steal your credit card information? 

 
EQ 814 / TU 815 / EX 842
Message 71 of 143
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?



@Anonymous wrote:


@haulingthescoreup wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:
This thread brings back memories. I still remember the days when you just handed your card to the cashier and they place the card in a metal machine that would imprint your card onto a triplicate carbon sales slip. They hardly ever called in to check on your card. Does anyone remember those old manual machines they used?



Absolutely! They made this great "crunch, crunch" sound. And a lot of store cards were different sizes from the usual. My mother had a Goldsmith's card that was as wide as a standard card, but only about 2/3 as tall.

After a while, the raised numbers on the cards would start to wear off, and you'd have to replace it, because the account number wouldn't go on the carbons properly.

I





Believe it or not, but these are still around. They're called imprinters, or "knuckle busters" by merchants. Smiley Happy They're still issued to merchants for free as a back-up. Or at least, my processing company gave me one when I opened my account with them and didn't charge me. At least the slips are now carbonless.

Handy in the event your terminal breaks, lose power or landline connection. Our local Chinese restaurant uses a small knuckle buster when they deliver and we want to use CC.
Message 72 of 143
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

I'm originally from Ft.Worth, now in Arlington.

I used to love mom taking me to Wards. The biggest store I've ever been in....in those days. The retail store was attached to the regional distribution center.

It's now been converted to condo's and upscale shops.
Message 73 of 143
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

A bank mastercard.  When credit cards just showed up in the mail, even if you did not apply for it.  the old version of pre-approved when it really meant 'pre-approved'.   Just sign here and validate the card.
Message 74 of 143
pattycake
Established Contributor

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

A Babbitt's Department Store card - in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1984.

The store has been closed for years, but I was able to use it to pay for a plane ticket from Chicago to Phoenix back in 1985, since there was an on-site travel agency.
pattycake's FICOs: 6/2/10 - TU: 708; EX: ???; EQ: 749
Message 75 of 143
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

 Mine was capital one in 1997. Still active they never given me a CL increase. Since then I have 6 in total. All have given me generous increases except that 1st Cap1 still at $500.  My parents had something called BankAmericard and MasterCharge.  Does anyone remember those? I think BankAmericard become Visa sometime in the late 70's.
Message 76 of 143
Red1Blue
Super Contributor

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

Mine, was JC Penny and Montgomery Wards at the same time in 1983. I should have kept those cards. Had I kept those cards, now my fico would have been 800+
Message 77 of 143
ariesdreamer
Regular Contributor

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

I had BOFA, Cap One, and several others (Visa/MC) that I cannot recall the names of. I got these cards back in 1998 when I first started college. I went straight to the mall after I got those cards.
 
Darn those people for sitting around the campus and attacking us with the "You get a free water bottle or T-shirt if you apply for a card with us" line. My best friend and I did not know crap about credit and applied just to get those free things...unbelievable, isn't it? I kick myself everytime I think about that but I sure as heck have learned my lesson!
02/17/2021: 654 (EX), 633 (EQ), 608 (TU)
12/8/2020: 668 (EX), 630 (EQ), 630 (TU)
Message 78 of 143
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

I am old enough to have gotten credit cards before VISA and Mastercard.  The first credit card I got was a gasoline company card, either Exxon (it might have been Esso back then) or Sunoco, after getting my drivers license in 1966. 
 
When I started working in NYC in the mid 1970's, the suggestion was to get credit cards at the department stores.  I got turned down at Gimbels and Korvettes (notice both are no longer with us!) until someone told me it was easier to get credit cards at the higher end department stores, like Bloomingdales.  I got a Mastercharge card when my employer, a NYC bank, started issuing them a little later.
Message 79 of 143
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Was The First Credit Card In Your Name?

Mine was also a Sears card. They approved me for more than I needed to buy the couch I wanted for my apartment. So I also bought a lamp and an answering machine. Several years later the couch was worn and torn, the lamp was tilting and the answering machine had been zapped by lightening. But I still had the credit card balance!! My first lesson in credit education -- never just pay the minimums.
Message 80 of 143
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