June 13, 2016

Although the early part of the century saw many individual store credit accounts, a credit card that could be used at more than one merchant was not invented until 1950. Diners Club, was founded in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, who was inspired to create the card after he was embarrassed when he forgot to bring his wallet to a restaurant. Diners Club became the first independent credit card company in the world. By 1951, there were 20,000 Diners Club cardholders. Diners Club Card purchases were made on credit, but it was technically a charge card, meaning the bill had to be paid in full at the end of each month. Source: Business Insider