Credit cards
A credit card system is a type of retail transaction settlement and credit system, named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a debit card in that the credit card issuer lends the consumer money rather than having the money removed from an account. It is also different from a charge card (though this name is often used to describe credit cards by the public) in that charge cards do not extend the user credit -- the charges must be paid each month in full. In contrast, a credit card allows the consumer to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.
The numbers found on credit cards have a certain amount of internal structure, and share a common numbering scheme.
The card number's prefix is the sequence of digits at the beginning of the number that determine the credit card network to which the number belongs. The card number's length is its number of digits.
In addition to the main credit card number, credit cards also carry issue and expiry dates (given to the nearest month), as well as extra codes such as issue numbers and security codes. Not all credit cards have the same sets of extra codes.
Many credit cards can also be used as an ATM card to withdraw money against the credit limit extended to the card but many card issuers charge interest on cash advances before they do so on purcahses. The interest on cash advances is commonly charged from the date the withdrawal is made, rather than the monthly billing date. Many card issuers levy a commission for cash withdrawals, even if the ATM belongs to the same bank as the card issuer. Merchants do not offer cashback on credit card transactions because they would pay a percentage commission of the additional cash amount to their bank or merchant services provider, thereby making it uneconomical.
Visa's "Happy Shoppers" credit card design
A growing field of numismatics (study of money), or more specifically Exonumia (study of money-like objects), credit card collectors seek to collect various embodiments of credit from the now familiar plastic cards to older paper merchant cards, and even metal tokens that were accepted as merchant credit cards. Early credit cards were made of celluloid, then metal and fiber, then paper and are now mostly plastic.
This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
Video: Credit Cards, Credit Score & Credit : How to Apply for a Credit Card
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