credit-card-and- - credit cards, carta de cré...

credit card = credit cards, carta de crédito, plastic, debit card, charge card, prepaid card, virtual card, gold card, platinum card, VISA, MasterCard, JCB, Diners Club, AMEX, American Express = A mechanism originally designed to get round the inadequacies of the US check/cheque interstate clearing system in the 20th century, this phenomenon of the plastic (and now "virtual" on-line) card has become one of the major channels of retail and corporate spending, especially cross-border and cross-currency, and arguably made possible commerce on the Internet. It exists in many forms from the commonly understood "credit" card where the card issuer provides the holder with credit and the holder need not necessarily pay the outstanding balance in full at the end of each statement cycle, through the charge card where the bill must be settled in toto at the end of each statement cycle, the debit card where funds are drawn directly/live from a checking/current/etc account for each transaction, to a prepaid card where funds must be loaded into the account first. Each has a different risk/benefit profile for the issuer and the holder and the merchant/acquirer accepting payment.