The game-changing piece of plastic

THE CREDIT CARD

In the late 1880s, a struggling American writer, Edward Bellamy, finally had a hit. His novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887 – about a utopian society of the future – was so popular that at the end of the 19th century it had become the third biggest selling novel in US history. It is largely forgotten now, of course, but one concept that he wove into his plot has become central to our everyday lives, and almost everyone’s travelling lives: the credit card.

Ironically, given that credit cards have come to encapsulate the twin forces of capitalism and consumerism, Bellamy’s cards were a way of allowing the state to pay all citizens an equal wage. That idea didn’t catch on, but in 1934 – in a sign of how crucial credit cards would become for travellers – American Airlines developed an Air Travel Card that allowed passengers to book flights on a buy now, pay later basis. By 1950 Diners Club had launched, followed by American Express in 1958. The prototype of Mastercard arrived in the 1960s. Visa was formed in the 1970s.

By now, the cards were catching on – despite the laborious process of filling out paper counterfoils and (often) the shop having to phone the bank to get authorisation for payment. A Barclaycard advertisement from the early 1970s played on the card’s growing success. Its suggestion of the glamorous power enshrined in a small piece of plastic was – for the times – typically crass. It showed a good-looking man being hugged adoringly by two women. Behind him sat 20 other male figures in forlorn and lonely poses, their faces blanked out.

“Already one man in 21 has a different kind of spending power,” read the caption, while the copy beneath emphasised that the card

could be used “at home and abroad”.

So far, I have glossed over the difference between a debit card (which you must be in credit to use) and a credit card (which puts you in debt). The latter has not always been a guarantee of future happiness and greater spending power, but both types have made a big impact on how we pay for our travels. Not only can we borrow enough to finance even the most spontaneous trip, but most importantly we can use the card while we are abroad and don’t have to change large quantities of cash with all the risk and exchange-rate losses that entails.

Cards now rule. The sheer efficiency of computerisation combined with better microchipped security saw off traveller’s cheques and now, in many countries,

they are seeing off cash – not just for travellers obviously, but for all of us. On the two trips I have made so far this year I have not spent a single cent in cash. My reserve stash of euro notes was returned to the jam jar where it has been kept undepleted since 2019.

All this still comes at a price, of course. Financial institutions know how to extract money from a service – a card, whether debit or credit, which doesn’t make additional charges over and above the exchange rate is a rarity. But they do give us enormous flexibility and security. And let’s not forget that – because of the Consumer Credit Act – they also (subject to some specific conditions) give us protection if the company we pay goes out of business. And in the current economic climate, that kind of protection is invaluable – especially when we are paying in advance for our holidays.

Flashing the plastic: credit cards have been a useful tool for travellers in one form or another since the 1930s