n dollars had been charged on the growing number of cards, and the company was soon turning a profit.
Ready to try something new, McNamara sold out to his partners, Ralph Schneider and Alfred Bloomingdale, for about $ 200,000 in 1953. People didn't believe, Schneider discovered, that just by applying, they would get a credit card. \"They thought there had to be a catch,\" he said.
There was a catch, but it snared the merchant, not the consumer. In a system card issuers use to this day, Diners Club charged retailers a \"discount\" of more than five percent on each sale. Despite the dent in their profits, merchants signed up, enticed by the argument that people with cards spend more than those without.
本章節來源於𝑜𝑜𝑝.𝑡𝑤
The problem was to persuade enough people to carry the cards. Diners Club turned to promotions. It gave away a round-the -world trip on a popular television show. The winners charged their expresses and made it \"from New York to New York without a dime in their pockets\".
By 1955 the convenience of charging was catching on in a big way. As the cards proliferated, so did advertising encouraging consumers to charge up a luxurious life. Carte Banche promised a 19-year-old, $73-a-wee clerk named Joseph Miraglia that its card would open up a new and magical world. He used it for a $10,000 spending binge--visiting Montreal, Las Vegas, Miami Beach and Havana, and staying only in the best hotels. \"For a month I was somebody, \"Miraglia stated after he was finally arrested.
But banks, sensing among the less affluent a pent-up desire to spend, began issuing cards of their own.
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