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Credit Cards make us feel bigger and better! Essay

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I’ve always been fascinated on how popular culture glorifies credit cards. What fascinates me about credit cards the most is that they are so powerful that they can turn you life around and help you live the life you had always dreamed of. Credit cards appear to be an insignificant piece of plastic, but they are more powerful that what they appear to be. Owning a credit card opens up doors to different worlds, especially when you own more than one credit card. Marketers always announce the glories, convenience, and safety issues of owning a credit card, but what they never tell you is that you must be vigilant on how you use your credit card/s because you may end up stuck in a world you wish you had never entered in which your dreams all …show more content…

The first places to offer credit cards were hotel chains, service stations, and department stores (Stephey 2009). It wasn’t until the postwar around 1950 when the credit cards really became popular. The first credit cards issued were made of cardboard. Around 20,000 Americans during this time carried these cardboard credit cards in their wallets (Stephey 2009). Furthermore both American Express and Bank of America in 1958 issued their own credit cards to their customers. Bank of America issued 60,000 credit cards which are now known as VISA to residents of Fresno, CA (Stephy 2009). Since then the number of credit card holders has risen, in 2008 half of US college students owned about four credit cards. During the 1950’s when credit cards were first introduced to society they were used because they were convenient to have. People didn’t have to worry about running to the bank if they didn’t have enough money to make a purchase. Furthermore now there are really different reasons than before to have credit cards. In the American society luxuries have become a necessity and to keep up with the latest luxuries many of us turn to our credit cards (Zumello 2011). Stores caught on to all of this and they figured out that in order to keep their customers fidelity and have them come back even if they don’t have money they must issue credit cards for their customers. Department stores would reward you as long as you make your payments on time; however as soon as you miss one

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