[CARTOON] Do you take MasterCard?

Credit Card Debt Trivia
At least one in 10 consumers has more than 10 credit cards in their wallets. That’s equal to 304 tons of plastic or 61 Elephants.

It took the city of Montreal 30 years to pay off its Olympic debt of $2 billion, held in 1976!

The average American household carries between $5,000 and $9,000 in credit card debt depending on which report you review.

In 1950, Diner’s Club became the first company to offer a credit card that could be used at multiple locations. Initially the credit card was accepted at just 14 restaurants in New York. Even so, within a year, over 20,000 people were using it.

In case you’re wondering, the first BankAmericards (Visa) were made of paper and had a credit limit of $300.

MasterCard introduced the first credit card hologram in 1983 to help thwart counterfeit credit card operations.

In 1976, BankAmericard changed its name to VISA

Until 1979, MasterCard was known as Master Charge.

American Express introduced the first credit card made of plastic in 1958.

American Express started off as a shipping company in 1850

The Visa logo colors were chosen because the blue represented the sky and the gold represented color of the hills in California where Bank of America was founded.

When you use a credit card at a gas pump, the pump authorizes the purchase for something in the neighborhood of $50 first. So if you have less than $50 left on your limit, the pump will reject your purchase attempt.

Restaurants typically will authorize a credit card purchase for the amount of the bill plus 25% (for gratuity), so again, if your limit can’t handle the extra 25%, the purchase transaction will be rejected.

The expiration date on the card is “fake.” You can still use the card after its expiration date because the card number on your replacement will be the same.

The first six digits will correspond to the issuer, including the major industry identifier. 34xxxx/37xxxx are for American Express, 4xxxxx is for Visa, 51-55xxxx is for MasterCard, and 6011xx is for Discover.

Credit card interest rates in other countries can be as high as 70% to 120% APR.

The credit card industry refers to people who carry a balance as a "revolver" and people who pay off their balance in full as "deadbeats." This is because credit card companies tend to make very little money off financially responsible consumers.