Happy 50th birthday credit cards…

Happy 50th birthday credit cards…

This week, the credit card turned 50 years old.  Credit cards are an invaluable part of everyday life and for many owners of online shops, essential.

The worldwide credit card network was started by American Express in 1958. Bank of America followed quickly with their BankAmericard. The Bank launched the card in a novel way, sending out 60,000 cards to consumers in the area. At first, few had any idea what to do with the cards but they learned the benefits of credit cards quickly and a year later customers had spent more than the equivalent of over $70million Australian dollars on their cards. This initial drop of cards was followed by another 2 million cards throughout all of California, USA. The credit boom never looked back.

Bank of America’s overseas affiliates programme which operated with their card evolved into the system that eventually became Visa. A group of banks then also set up rival MasterCharge in 1966 – which later evolved into MasterCard.

Accepting credit cards is an important ingredient in running a high volume, successful shopping cart. There are many payment options online: third party providers like PayPal and Paymate as well as internet payment gateway providers like eWAY, Camtech, ANZ eGate, CommWeb, and DirectOne.  All of these payment gateways are supported by Ozcart shopping cart software. New Zealand customers can also opt to use NZ based payment gateway providers like Payment Express (DPS) or Paystation.

For an introduction to payment gateways or information on starting your own ecommerce website that accepts credit card, have a look at the information on our website and contact us at Ozcart to find out how we could help you run your own online shop.

Ozcart Ecommerce

Ozcart has been in business since 2006 and is an online, hosted shopping cart that you can use for your current or new online store. We offer so many features for the same low price. In fact, we are addicted to adding new ones to ensure that we remain one of the best choices for a shopping cart. https://ozcart.com

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