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Just a few years after the novel was published, the idea became a card you could actually hold in your hand. In 1894, hotels for the first time began to give their guests paper cards that enabled them to pay later. Starting in 1920s, department stores, oil companies, airlines and restaurant chains followed suit. The shortcoming of such cards was that they could only be used within the companies that issued them and could not be used universally.

That changed in 1949 when Frank McNamara discovered at a business dinner that he had forgotten to bring cash. His wife had to pay the bill. McNamara decided that such a faux pas would never be allowed to happen again. Together with his lawyer Ralph Schneider, he developed the first credit card made of cardboard, which was accepted in various restaurants. Only a year later, friends of the two inventors were able to test the first prototype of the Diners Club card. By 1951, the Diners Club already had 42,000 members and had expanded into many major cities in the USA. The card made its debut in Europe just four years after McNamara first had the idea.

The Diners Club credit card paved the way for the credit card system as we know it today. Even in the early days, prospective customers were only issued a card with a certain amount of credit after a credit check. Spurred on by the success of Diners Club, numerous imitators tried their luck and flooded the American market with their own credit cards. Many of these were unverified and cheated users out of their money. It was only after the government intervened and imposed regulations that the competition thinned out, leaving only the strongest providers. In addition to Diners Club, these included Mastercard and Visa. The travel company American Express issued its first credit card in 1958, and it is still one of the market leaders today. In the same year, the first plastic card replaced paper cards.

In Europe, the cards spread much more slowly, as people here were rather more skeptical about paying on credit. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that credit cards caught on in European countries.

Today, it is impossible to imagine Switzerland without credit cards. Since 2009, the number of cards has roughly doubled and an end to this trend is not in sight. 

Credit cards have always been subject to technological innovation. New technologies and features have been integrated over time.

Is it safe to pay virtually by credit card? Experts assure us it is. According to the card providers, unintentional payment while walking past a terminal, for example, is not technically possible. First, payment can only be made on a payment system registered with the credit card companies.

And second, contactless payment only works if the card is held very close to the reader. Any additional cards or coins you hold in your wallet also make access more difficult, even at close range. And a stolen card cannot be used to make an infinite number of NFC payments. To prevent fraud, ��ţ�������� customers have been able to receive notifications about transactions of 10 cents or more on their smartphones since November 2024. From CHF 80, you must enter your PIN to make payment, and you must also enter it for frequent consecutive use.

Credit cards have various protection mechanisms. For example, users must confirm online purchases made via 3-D Secure in the ��ţ�������� Access App. No payment will be made without confirmation. This also prevents fraud. You can block your card with a few clicks if you happen to lose it or if fraudulent charges are detected. You can also just freeze your card temporarily. For example, if you don’t know where your card is at the moment.

The use of biometric technologies is also well advanced. For example, if you have stored your credit card in a digital wallet, payment is authorized using facial recognition, a fingerprint or an iris scan. A growing number of customers are paying securely in this way.

If researchers, managers and experts are to be believed, payment methods will continue to evolve radically in the coming decade. Engineers at the innovation centers of Visa and Mastercard are experimenting with virtual reality and the Internet of Things – a collective term for technologies that create a global infrastructure for information societies and connect physical and virtual objects. The latter would mean, for example, that you could buy your ticket to the movies directly from your Smart Car or Smart Bike while traveling to the theater.

Payment on credit has existed for thousands of years. But it is only in the last 100 years that the credit card has developed from an idea to a technological innovation. From its beginnings as a piece of paper, which could only be used in a few stores, to plastic cards with a chip and digital payment with no card at all, credit cards are here to stay.