Thursday 10 April 2008

Who Invented the Credit Card?

A credit card is an automatic way of offering credit to a consumer.
Credit is a method of selling goods or services without the buyer having cash in hand. A credit card is only an automatic way of offering credit to a consumer. Today, every credit card carries an identifying number that speeds shopping transactions. Imagine what a credit purchase would be like without it, the sales person would have to record your identity, billing address, and terms of repayment.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "the use of credit cards originated in the United States during the 1920s, when individual firms, such as oil companies and hotel chains, began issuing them to customers." However, references to credit cards have been made as far back as 1890 in Europe. Early credit cards involved sales directly between the merchant offering the credit and credit card, and that merchant's customer.

Around 1938, companies started to accept each other's cards. Today, credit cards allow you to make purchases with countless third parties.
The Shape of Credit Cards
Credit cards were not always been made of plastic. There have been credit tokens made from metal coins, metal plates, and celluloid, metal, fiber, paper, and now mostly plastic cards.
First Bank Credit Card
The inventor of the first bank issued credit card was John Biggins of the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn in New York. In 1946, Biggins invented the "Charge-It" program between bank customers and local merchants. Merchants could deposit sales slips into the bank and the bank billed the customer who used the card.

Diners Club Credit Card
In 1950, the Diners Club issued their credit card in the United States. The Diners Club credit card was invented by Diners' Club founder Frank McNamara and it was intended to pay restaurant bills. A customer could eat without cash at any restaurant that would accept Diners' Club credit cards. Diners' Club would pay the restaurant and the credit card holder would repay Diners' Club. The Diners Club card was at first technically a charge card rather than a credit card since the customer had to repay the entire amount when billed by Diners Club.

American Express issued their first credit card in 1958. Bank of America issued the BankAmericard (now Visa) bank credit card later in 1958.

The Popularity of Credit Cards
Credit cards were first promoted to traveling salesmen (more common in that era) for use on the road. By the early 1960s, more companies offered credit cards, advertising them as a time-saving device rather than a form of credit. American Express and MasterCard became huge successes overnight.

By the mid-'70s, the U.S. Congress begin regulating the credit card industry by banning such practices as the mass mailing of active credit cards to those who had not requested them. However, not all regulations have been as consumer friendly. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted restrictions on the amount of late penalty fees a credit card company could charge. Deregulation has also allowed very high interest rates to be charged.

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Free Information Internet Marketing - How Can I Make Money Online for Free?

The internet is the new frontier isn't it? Every single day, more people move online to find information, and make their purchases. I'm sure you have realized this, and are asking yourself "How can I make money online for free?"

There are actually ways you can do that, and it is possible. One thing to keep in mind, that you can make money online for free, but you will need to invest your time. So the cost of the free money is time. If you have time then great! Let's get going, but if time is limited, you may want to explore a combination of free and paid methods.

For starters, many choose free for the simple reason that you limit your exposure to losses. So, "How Can I Make Money Online For Free?"

The first way is to start a blog. You will find many free blog sites you can sign up for! Just search it under "free blog." Blogging for money can be a fun and profitable venture. Pick an item you are passionate about, and then start writing about it. Make sure you regularly update your blog so that the search engine spyders recognize it. They like to see regular updates.

Pick your topic, and make sure you use the keywords related to your topic regularly in the blog. Make sure it reads naturally though. You don't want to see your topic keywords every in every other sentence! Try for 3-5%.

Start writing! Make sure the content is fun, interesting, and most importantly, informative! It you do that, you will get readers to come back. Work on creating a relationship with them.

So now you are asking, okay, how can I make money online for free? Here's that part...assuming you are offering great content that people are loving,and you are providing them a service, you can start to offer products that you endorse on your blog. But is only works if you have offered value and created a trust relationship with our readers!

Many blogs also allow you to offer Google AdSense to your blog, opening up the opportunity for a reader to click on an ad, and you get paid a commission for that. So-Create a killer blog, offer great content, offer products that you can recommend and stand behind, add Google AdSense!

How do I drive traffic to my blog? Visit Here.

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First European" Confirmed to Be 1.2 Million Years Old


An analysis of an ancient jaw containing teeth has confirmed that humans reached Western Europe well over a million years ago, far earlier than previously thought.

The prehistoric fossil was excavated last June at Atapuerca in northern Spain, along with a previously reported tooth and stone tools used for butchering meat.

At the time, scientists announced that they had dated the separate tooth to 1.2 million years ago but that more research was needed before the find could be reported in a scientific journal.

The new study of the jaw confirms that the "first Europeans" arrived well over a million years ago, reports the archaeological team—led by Eudald Carbonell of the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain—in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The jaw's owner has been labeled a Homo antecessor—a species first named in 1997 based on other human fossils found at Atapuerca. The sex isn't known, but the new human was likely aged between 30 and 40 at the time of death.

"Since we now know those [1997] fossils date to 900,000 [years ago], the time difference is not great, and, provisionally at least, I think it's logical to assign the mandible to Homo antecessor," said dig co-director José Maria Bermúdez de Castro of the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain.

The new findings suggest that H. antecessor was most probably unique to Europe, the researchers say.

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