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Article: Credit Cards
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CREDIT CARDS
CREDIT CARDS
introduce financial flexibility into modern consumers' lives. For those who always pay off their balances, credit cards eliminate the need to carry cash or obtain check-cashing approval. For those who carry a balance, credit cards allow acquisition of goods and services that cannot be paid for in full when purchased.
The twenty-first century extent of credit card use may be new, but its function is not. Before 1900, American families obtained "book credit" from merchants who allowed the same financial flexibility now provided by credit cards. But urbanization and the chain store movement rendered the old system of book credit infeasible.
The first step on the ...