A forgotten wallet and the surprising origin story of the credit card

Credit cards are a part of everyday life, consumer debt is widespread and access to credit has helped make America a worldwide economic force. But where did it all begin? According to legend, in 1940s New York when businessman Frank McNamara was out for lunch with his associates. He forgot his wallet, and resolved to create a new way to pay. What emerged was the ‘Diners Card’. A few decades and a disastrous experiment later, this morphed into the credit card we know today. Hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth discuss the invention of the credit card, consider a crazy scheme dubbed the ‘Fresno drop’, and reflect on how the flexible friend revolutionised the way we pay - and built a trillion dollar mountain of debt. Further reading: A Piece of the Action (1994) by Joe Nocera. Follow Joe Nocera on X @opinion_joe Washington Post article by Joe Nocera: ‘The Day The Credit Card was Born’: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1994/11/04/the-day-the-credit-card-was-born/d42da27b-0437-4a67-b753-bf9b440ad6dc/ ‘How Credit Cards changed the way we spend’ by Tim Harford: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41916711 For more on the history of credit, check out our past episode ‘Why money is the biggest shared hallucination in human history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFM_JqnJVog To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FTTheStoryOfMoney Hosts: Gillian Tett & Robin Wigglesworth Producer: Lulu Smyth Senior producer: Michela Tindera Executive producer: Kate Ford Original music and sound design: Breen Turner Video editor: Michael Saliba Podcast development: Laura Clarke FT global head of audio: Flo Phillips Special thanks to Elizabeth Marcus. Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at [email protected] Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.