Who Can Stop Credit Card Abuse
Credit cards have become such a familiar feature of the life style in the world that it is difficult to imagine a consumer economy functioning without them. The credit cards are nowadays the most convenient of all types of payments. The boom of the credit card industry has affected everyone in the world of the "plastic money". That was the name given to the credit card right after it was invented. Nowadays, the "plastic money" occupies a very important place in the economy of the country. "Settlements indicates that the number of credit cards in circulation increased 34 percent between 1988..... The data also show that the value of credit card transactions increased 98 percent during the same period" (Yoo, p.s.1997). A lot of reasons explain the fact that the credit cards are holding the most important place in the wallet and purses today. Behind these reasons , is hiding a crucial social phenomenon that has very bad consequences in the country, credit card abuse. Despite the measures taken by the officials, statistics prove that the number is increasing everyday. Today, Visa and Master card occupy an important place in the credit card marketplace but the pioneer in the business remains to be Diners Club.
` Those three men were Alfred Bloomingdale, Frank Mc Namara and Ralph Snyder. They conceived a plan for a new type of credit card. Unlike the retail and gas credit cards, which were restricted in use to those industries, theirs would be "universal" card that allowed its holders to purchase goods and services at different places across the country. An industry was born, Diners Club As a matter of fact, the period right before the First World War, was the first year for a new industry, the credit card industry. Those first credit cards were not really credit cards as they are today because they served only for limited needs. They could be used only on a very low level. "The use of credit cards by retailers began in 1914" (Lewis, 1990). Since that date there was an inconceivable growth of credit card production. Prior to World War I, few hotels, oil companies and department stores issued credit cards. Then in 1931 the airline companies introduced the credit cards in their business (Lewis, 1990). The evolution and the expansion of the card went lide the speed of light. The most important step was the introduction of the credit card to the Internet in the 90's. Today, Web servers enable payments by credit card. A credit card transaction over the Internet is one of the most common types of payment. If a merchant has an account with a merchant bank that offers Internet credit card processing, he would be able to accept credit card payment over the Internet (http://search.netscape.com). "There was an increase of $78 billion over 1994, in just one short year. We've been tracking it since 1980, and we've never seen that kind of increase before." (Glenn, 1984, pp.857-68). In spite of the tough measures taken by the banks and the credit card companies, losses due to fraud continued throughout the 70s. As the 80's approached, the credit card companies overcome most of the legal and operational problems such as billing errors and the development of an efficient nationwide up-to-the-minute authorization system. A wide laws and regulations system now govern the functioning of the industry but still the fraud is inevitable. This number is still increasing due to the corruption of our society. The only way you can help to stop this is by changing the whole system. But then there will be some people who will pursue their illegal actions, and will find a way to abuse other systems also. Another reason that may explain the credit card fever is that it allows its holders to spend the money they haven't got yet. Actually, it looks like free money, although it really isn't. That is the case of the college students who have credit cards and whose parents will pay the debt their child has created.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2022
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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