Editing Charge card (section)

==History==
In 1914, [[Western Union]] opened the first charge account for its customers and provided them with a paper [[Identity document|identification]].<ref name=cylo1914>{{citation
   |encyclopedia=[[encyclopedia.com]] |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/finance/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/charge-card
   |title=Charge card: What it means}}</ref><ref name=Sage1914>{{citation |journal=[[SAGE Publishing]]
|title=Plastic surveillance: Payment cards |author=J. Lauer|date=January 2020
|volume=7
|issue=1
|doi=10.1177/2053951720907632
|s2cid=216424288
|doi-access=free
}}</ref> There were many larger department stores which opened store charge accounts for their customers with paper identification, enabling the customer to make purchases on credit provided by the store. However, these accounts could be used only within the store which issued them.

In 1950, [[Diners Club]] began opening charge accounts with paper identification cards, directed at the travel and entertainment markets. The novel feature of these cards was that the charge card could be used in a large number of stores. These stores had to enter an agreement with Diners Club, and pay a fee to the company. For the fee, Diners Club carried the cost of setting up accounts, authorizing each transaction, processing transactions and collections, bore the financing costs and assumed the risk of cardholders defaulting. The new system was especially appealing to smaller stores in competition with the larger stores but who could not justify setting up their own charge account facilities. Eventually the larger stores began accepting these cards, testifying that the fees charged by the card operator were lower than the store's cost in running their own store accounts. In 1957, [[American Express]] also entered the field, and in 1959 was the first company to issue embossed [[plastic card|plastic]] charge cards to [[ISO/IEC 7810]] standards.

In Europe, the [[MasterCard]]-affiliated [[Maestro (debit card)|Maestro]] brand<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.howitravel.co/maestro |title=Maestro Cards: What they are, pros & cons |date=October 30, 2019 |access-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-date=September 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907174714/https://www.howitravel.co/maestro/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> (which is a [[debit card]] rather than a charge card) replaced the European [[Eurocheque]] brand for payment cards in 2002. Many Eurocheque cards, particularly in such countries as [[Austria]] and [[Germany]], were charge cards branded with the Eurocheque logo. In addition, the European [[Eurocard (payment card)|Eurocard]], issued as the competitor for American Express was, and in some countries (such as the [[Nordic countries]]) still is, a charge card.{{citation needed|date=April 2010}} Therefore, the majority of MasterCards in these countries still are charge cards. [[Visa Inc.|Visa]] charge cards are also available in Europe.