Everything Old is New Again

[SoCalDem]

Bank of America is thinking about creating its own "in-house" credit card.. I am old enough to remember BankAmericard which WAS issued by Bank of America..I worked at a bank in Indiana, and when our bank was thinking of signing up with them, we were all showed a film about how wonderful it would be when ALL banks were as forward-thinking as ours was, and had signed up with Bank of America for its "special card". What was funny, was that my husband and I already had one.. Kansas, for some odd reason, was progressive enough back then to have already issued them at the B of A we had banked with, so I actually HAD one. I took it out and asked the bank president if it was the same card the film was about.. You would have thought I had handed him the Holy Grail.. Everyone oohed and aaahed as they passed it around..

Back then (1970) all the stores had their own cards, and it was hard for ordinary people to get Diners Club or American Express cards, so the BankAmericard was "special".. Soon afterwards, Mastercharge came into beiing, and the race was on...the race to Debtsville:(

[mdmc]

1. there is nothing new under the sun

[meegbear]

2. You mean the 3 credit cards I have from Bank of America ...

that I had to turn to a debt consolidation firm to help bring down the payments for are not their credit cards?

[SoCalDem]

6. Mastercharge & BankAmericards morphed into Visa & MasterCard

when the individual banks decided to "outsource" the verification and collections segments. I suspect that not all banks eagerly supported cards that had a B of A logo on them also..

Now the banks are tired of paying fees to Visa & Mc, so B of A wants to go back to the olden days and do it themselves..(with their own outsourced labor)..

Remember when they had those ricepaper books with all the "bad" numbers in it? We would go blind looking up bad numbers..Now with the electronic verification, it's a snap..

[meegbear]

7. Gotcha!

Thanks.

[ReadTomPaine]

3. What most people don't grasp is how recent a change Credit Culture is...

They really were rare years ago - many younger people don't believe it when you point this out. I still have an old charge plate from Macy's that my family used years ago. It was literally made out of metal:

[Gormy Cuss]

8. The bankcards (as opposed to the store cards) were rare 30 years ago

except in higher income families. The blue collar and moderate income set had Sears cards and one from the predominant local department stores. Getting a Sears card was tough unless you had established a good credit record with other stores.

It is amusing that BofA is trying to take back its baby.

[JuniperLea]

4. I think I remember that ad...

Wasn't there a cartoon orchestra conductor? Beethoven's Fifth?

As I recall, that card morphed into the Visa card...

[BuyingThyme]

5. Didn't BofA become VISA? And isn't BofA owned by Japan now?