What are two credit card groups?
A: Consumer credit cards and business credit cards.
Most cards are plastic, but some are what?
A: Metal.
A regular credit card is different from a charge card,
which requires what?
A: It requires that the balance be repaid in full each month or at the end
of each statement cycle.
In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers to do
what?
A: To build a continuing balance of debt, subject to interest being charged.
A credit card differs from a charge card also in that a
credit card typically involves what?
A: A third-party entity that pays the seller and is reimbursed by the buyer,
whereas a charge card simply defers payment by the buyer until a later date.
A credit card also differs from a debit card, which can
be used how?
A: Like currency by the owner of the card.
Alternatives to credit cards include what?
A: Debit cards, mobile payments, digital wallets, cryptocurrencies,
pay-by-hand, bank transfers, and buy now, pay later.
In 2018, there were how many credit cards in
circulation in the U.S.?
A: 1.12 billion.
In 2018 72% of adults had what?
A: At least one card.
Credit cards have a printed or embossed bank card
number complying with what?
A: The ISO/IEC 7812 numbering standard.
The card number's prefix, called the Bank
Identification Number is the sequence of digits at the beginning of the
number that determine what?
A: The bank to which a credit card number belongs.
This is the first six digits for what?
A: MasterCard and Visa cards.
The next nine digits are what?
A: The individual account number.
What is the final digit for?
A: It’s a validity check digit.
Most modern credit cards use smart card technology:
they have a what?
A: A computer chip embedded in them as a security feature.
In addition, complex smart cards, including peripherals
such as a keypad, a display or a fingerprint sensor are increasingly used
for what?
A: Credit cards.
In addition to the main credit card number, credit
cards also carry what?
A: Issue and expiration dates as well as extra codes such as issue numbers
and security codes.
Complex smart cards allow to have a variable security
code, thus increasing what?
A: Increasing security for online transactions.
Not all credit cards have the same sets of extra codes
nor do they use the same what?
A: Number of digits.
Credit card numbers and cardholder names were
originally what?
A: Embossed, to allow for easy transfer of such information to charge slips
printed on carbon paper forms.
With the decline of paper slips, some credit cards are
no longer what?
A: Embossed and in fact the card number is no longer in the front.
The concept of using a card for purchases was described
in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his what?
A: His utopian novel Looking Backward.
Bellamy used the term credit card eleven times in this
novel, although this referred to what?
A: A card for spending a citizen's dividend from the government, rather than
borrowing.