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How were US credit cards verified in-store in the 1980's?
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Back in the 1980's, many major retailers in the United States would accept credit cards using what was sometimes called a "knucklebuster" - a hand-operated device that would take a carbon-copy impression of the customer's credit card and produce a receipt for them to sign. Smaller businesses continued to use those devices into the 1990's, presumably because the new-fangled online terminals were expensive. I even recall some rural general store-type establishments using knucklebusters as late as 2005. The receipts produced by these devices were presumably then mailed (or possibly faxed) in for processing, leaving some significant latency.
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then? Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
united-states credit-card history
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
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Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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add a comment |
Back in the 1980's, many major retailers in the United States would accept credit cards using what was sometimes called a "knucklebuster" - a hand-operated device that would take a carbon-copy impression of the customer's credit card and produce a receipt for them to sign. Smaller businesses continued to use those devices into the 1990's, presumably because the new-fangled online terminals were expensive. I even recall some rural general store-type establishments using knucklebusters as late as 2005. The receipts produced by these devices were presumably then mailed (or possibly faxed) in for processing, leaving some significant latency.
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then? Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
united-states credit-card history
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
2
Watched a TV episode long ago where some young thieves are trying to use a stolen credit card, get tripped up by new technology. (I think they were counting on a phone outage to make merchants go back to the manual processors.) Hawaii 5-0? Couldn't find it in an index of episodes.
– Andrew Lazarus
9 hours ago
add a comment |
Back in the 1980's, many major retailers in the United States would accept credit cards using what was sometimes called a "knucklebuster" - a hand-operated device that would take a carbon-copy impression of the customer's credit card and produce a receipt for them to sign. Smaller businesses continued to use those devices into the 1990's, presumably because the new-fangled online terminals were expensive. I even recall some rural general store-type establishments using knucklebusters as late as 2005. The receipts produced by these devices were presumably then mailed (or possibly faxed) in for processing, leaving some significant latency.
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then? Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
united-states credit-card history
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Back in the 1980's, many major retailers in the United States would accept credit cards using what was sometimes called a "knucklebuster" - a hand-operated device that would take a carbon-copy impression of the customer's credit card and produce a receipt for them to sign. Smaller businesses continued to use those devices into the 1990's, presumably because the new-fangled online terminals were expensive. I even recall some rural general store-type establishments using knucklebusters as late as 2005. The receipts produced by these devices were presumably then mailed (or possibly faxed) in for processing, leaving some significant latency.
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then? Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
united-states credit-card history
united-states credit-card history
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 15 hours ago
Robert Columbia
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
asked 15 hours ago
Robert ColumbiaRobert Columbia
1788 bronze badges
1788 bronze badges
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Robert Columbia is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
2
Watched a TV episode long ago where some young thieves are trying to use a stolen credit card, get tripped up by new technology. (I think they were counting on a phone outage to make merchants go back to the manual processors.) Hawaii 5-0? Couldn't find it in an index of episodes.
– Andrew Lazarus
9 hours ago
add a comment |
2
Watched a TV episode long ago where some young thieves are trying to use a stolen credit card, get tripped up by new technology. (I think they were counting on a phone outage to make merchants go back to the manual processors.) Hawaii 5-0? Couldn't find it in an index of episodes.
– Andrew Lazarus
9 hours ago
2
2
Watched a TV episode long ago where some young thieves are trying to use a stolen credit card, get tripped up by new technology. (I think they were counting on a phone outage to make merchants go back to the manual processors.) Hawaii 5-0? Couldn't find it in an index of episodes.
– Andrew Lazarus
9 hours ago
Watched a TV episode long ago where some young thieves are trying to use a stolen credit card, get tripped up by new technology. (I think they were counting on a phone outage to make merchants go back to the manual processors.) Hawaii 5-0? Couldn't find it in an index of episodes.
– Andrew Lazarus
9 hours ago
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then?
Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a
high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify
the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from
going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit
card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to
mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's until I was a young adult sometime in the 80's the method was to use a book to verify the cards. This book came out each month that listed all the cards that had been cancelled. The pages of the book were tissue paper thin. When you gave the cashier the card they looked up the number in the book. If it wasn't listed it was safe to accept. I have to assume that as long as the merchant followed the rules they were protected, and the losses were handled by the credit card company during the period between books.
I even remember asking about this process at one point. It was obvious that the delay to print and distribute a new book to every cash register was a problem. This system could not even address the issue of exceeding the credit limit.
We still use a similar (but more advanced) system for handling PKI today. Each signing CA keeps a list of all revoked certificates, the software can consult this Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to know even the cert has been revoked. The person accepting the cert is supposed to check the CRL, with guidelines of what to do if the network is down, and how often they are supposed to get a new CRL file.
The system of the bad credit card list was the best they could do at the time. A store I worked at in the early 1980's even had a book they gave to the customer service stations to make sure that the person returning an item without a receipt wasn't on their list of having returned other items with out receipts to other stores in the area. If they were on the list they were probably dealing in stolen items. I have no idea if that list worked or not.
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
2
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
1
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
1
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
2
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Stores didn't verify cards. If the card wasn't expired, they used it. At best they might ask for a driver's license to match the name. If they were particularly worried, they could call the bank to verify the account. In other words, the same way they accepted checks.
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
7
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
add a comment |
In a nutshell, there was a lot more trust in honesty. That's also how paper checks could ever work - trust. People didn't game the systems in use as much, and merchants trusted that if you had a credit card, you were trustworthy.
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
1
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then?
Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a
high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify
the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from
going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit
card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to
mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's until I was a young adult sometime in the 80's the method was to use a book to verify the cards. This book came out each month that listed all the cards that had been cancelled. The pages of the book were tissue paper thin. When you gave the cashier the card they looked up the number in the book. If it wasn't listed it was safe to accept. I have to assume that as long as the merchant followed the rules they were protected, and the losses were handled by the credit card company during the period between books.
I even remember asking about this process at one point. It was obvious that the delay to print and distribute a new book to every cash register was a problem. This system could not even address the issue of exceeding the credit limit.
We still use a similar (but more advanced) system for handling PKI today. Each signing CA keeps a list of all revoked certificates, the software can consult this Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to know even the cert has been revoked. The person accepting the cert is supposed to check the CRL, with guidelines of what to do if the network is down, and how often they are supposed to get a new CRL file.
The system of the bad credit card list was the best they could do at the time. A store I worked at in the early 1980's even had a book they gave to the customer service stations to make sure that the person returning an item without a receipt wasn't on their list of having returned other items with out receipts to other stores in the area. If they were on the list they were probably dealing in stolen items. I have no idea if that list worked or not.
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
2
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
1
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
1
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
2
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
add a comment |
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then?
Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a
high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify
the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from
going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit
card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to
mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's until I was a young adult sometime in the 80's the method was to use a book to verify the cards. This book came out each month that listed all the cards that had been cancelled. The pages of the book were tissue paper thin. When you gave the cashier the card they looked up the number in the book. If it wasn't listed it was safe to accept. I have to assume that as long as the merchant followed the rules they were protected, and the losses were handled by the credit card company during the period between books.
I even remember asking about this process at one point. It was obvious that the delay to print and distribute a new book to every cash register was a problem. This system could not even address the issue of exceeding the credit limit.
We still use a similar (but more advanced) system for handling PKI today. Each signing CA keeps a list of all revoked certificates, the software can consult this Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to know even the cert has been revoked. The person accepting the cert is supposed to check the CRL, with guidelines of what to do if the network is down, and how often they are supposed to get a new CRL file.
The system of the bad credit card list was the best they could do at the time. A store I worked at in the early 1980's even had a book they gave to the customer service stations to make sure that the person returning an item without a receipt wasn't on their list of having returned other items with out receipts to other stores in the area. If they were on the list they were probably dealing in stolen items. I have no idea if that list worked or not.
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
2
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
1
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
1
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
2
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
add a comment |
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then?
Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a
high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify
the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from
going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit
card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to
mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's until I was a young adult sometime in the 80's the method was to use a book to verify the cards. This book came out each month that listed all the cards that had been cancelled. The pages of the book were tissue paper thin. When you gave the cashier the card they looked up the number in the book. If it wasn't listed it was safe to accept. I have to assume that as long as the merchant followed the rules they were protected, and the losses were handled by the credit card company during the period between books.
I even remember asking about this process at one point. It was obvious that the delay to print and distribute a new book to every cash register was a problem. This system could not even address the issue of exceeding the credit limit.
We still use a similar (but more advanced) system for handling PKI today. Each signing CA keeps a list of all revoked certificates, the software can consult this Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to know even the cert has been revoked. The person accepting the cert is supposed to check the CRL, with guidelines of what to do if the network is down, and how often they are supposed to get a new CRL file.
The system of the bad credit card list was the best they could do at the time. A store I worked at in the early 1980's even had a book they gave to the customer service stations to make sure that the person returning an item without a receipt wasn't on their list of having returned other items with out receipts to other stores in the area. If they were on the list they were probably dealing in stolen items. I have no idea if that list worked or not.
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
How did merchants verify the acceptability of a credit card back then?
Nowadays, even every little rural general store seems to have a
high-speed Internet connection that they use to instantaneously verify
the customer's card with the bank. What prevented a 1980's bandit from
going on a spending spree with a stolen, altered, or revoked credit
card and then moving on to the next town before the bank got around to
mailing out "card declined" notices to the scammed retailers?
When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's until I was a young adult sometime in the 80's the method was to use a book to verify the cards. This book came out each month that listed all the cards that had been cancelled. The pages of the book were tissue paper thin. When you gave the cashier the card they looked up the number in the book. If it wasn't listed it was safe to accept. I have to assume that as long as the merchant followed the rules they were protected, and the losses were handled by the credit card company during the period between books.
I even remember asking about this process at one point. It was obvious that the delay to print and distribute a new book to every cash register was a problem. This system could not even address the issue of exceeding the credit limit.
We still use a similar (but more advanced) system for handling PKI today. Each signing CA keeps a list of all revoked certificates, the software can consult this Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to know even the cert has been revoked. The person accepting the cert is supposed to check the CRL, with guidelines of what to do if the network is down, and how often they are supposed to get a new CRL file.
The system of the bad credit card list was the best they could do at the time. A store I worked at in the early 1980's even had a book they gave to the customer service stations to make sure that the person returning an item without a receipt wasn't on their list of having returned other items with out receipts to other stores in the area. If they were on the list they were probably dealing in stolen items. I have no idea if that list worked or not.
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
answered 14 hours ago
mhoran_psprepmhoran_psprep
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
76.1k8 gold badges103 silver badges196 bronze badges
2
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
1
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
1
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
2
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
add a comment |
2
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
1
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
1
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
2
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
2
2
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
In the UK during that sort of time shops tended to have a "house limit" (that varied between stores, and was adjusted up/down periodically). Below that, they just used the Imprinter (still available on Amazon!). Above the limit, they would phone Access or Barclaycard etc. who would check the card and might give them a question to ask the customer. Some places may have had lists (much smaller than your book) of stolen or being-used-fraudulently card numbers to check against.
– TripeHound
12 hours ago
1
1
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
I was a cashier in those days, and those books were awful to use. I don't know how many numbers were listed in the books, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred. Maybe 500 max. I was always surprised, because I figured there would be thousands of numbers, not hundreds.
– Mohair
6 hours ago
1
1
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
I remember the printed lists. They also checked photo ID such as drivers' licenses occasionally, especially for large transactions of high-value merchandise, so a thief would have had to relatively quickly forge the photo ID too in order get way with it (not as easy then as now). I vaguely remember a phone call being involved with a relatively large (Amex, I think) transaction where I was asked to talk to a representative.
– Spehro Pefhany
4 hours ago
2
2
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@TripeHound - I'm pretty sure the US had the same thing, but here it was called the "floor limit". It was the highest amount that could be accepted on a credit card "on the sales floor", without going and calling the bank to verify. The concept still exists for dealing with network outages, actually.
– Bobson
4 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
@Bobson The term "house limit" is almost certainly my own invention: I know the process existed; not necessarily what it's official name!
– TripeHound
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Stores didn't verify cards. If the card wasn't expired, they used it. At best they might ask for a driver's license to match the name. If they were particularly worried, they could call the bank to verify the account. In other words, the same way they accepted checks.
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
7
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Stores didn't verify cards. If the card wasn't expired, they used it. At best they might ask for a driver's license to match the name. If they were particularly worried, they could call the bank to verify the account. In other words, the same way they accepted checks.
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
7
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Stores didn't verify cards. If the card wasn't expired, they used it. At best they might ask for a driver's license to match the name. If they were particularly worried, they could call the bank to verify the account. In other words, the same way they accepted checks.
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
Stores didn't verify cards. If the card wasn't expired, they used it. At best they might ask for a driver's license to match the name. If they were particularly worried, they could call the bank to verify the account. In other words, the same way they accepted checks.
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
answered 14 hours ago
pboss3010pboss3010
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
8752 silver badges6 bronze badges
7
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
add a comment |
7
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
7
7
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
It's worth adding that low margin businesses like grocery stores simply didn't accept credit cards.
– The Photon
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
@The Photon: FTM, the one I mostly shop at (WinCo) still doesn't.
– jamesqf
9 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
"If the card wasn't expired..." - Or in the book of bad card numbers. We used to call them blacklists, but I don't know the official name.
– jww
2 hours ago
add a comment |
In a nutshell, there was a lot more trust in honesty. That's also how paper checks could ever work - trust. People didn't game the systems in use as much, and merchants trusted that if you had a credit card, you were trustworthy.
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
1
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
add a comment |
In a nutshell, there was a lot more trust in honesty. That's also how paper checks could ever work - trust. People didn't game the systems in use as much, and merchants trusted that if you had a credit card, you were trustworthy.
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
1
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
add a comment |
In a nutshell, there was a lot more trust in honesty. That's also how paper checks could ever work - trust. People didn't game the systems in use as much, and merchants trusted that if you had a credit card, you were trustworthy.
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
In a nutshell, there was a lot more trust in honesty. That's also how paper checks could ever work - trust. People didn't game the systems in use as much, and merchants trusted that if you had a credit card, you were trustworthy.
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
answered 11 hours ago
AganjuAganju
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
23.4k4 gold badges36 silver badges80 bronze badges
1
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
add a comment |
1
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
1
1
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
Any reliable source for your claims about the good old times?
– Quora Feans
5 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
The good old times aside (early credit cards were rife with fraud and delinquincies, there's an important point here that many businesses took paper checks, and those suffered from similar vulnerabilities: the check could be fake, the account could be closed, the account could have no balance, etc... There were check guarantee cards that tried to address some of the same issues for merchants as early credit cards. An insecure system was still acceptable if it wasn't worse than checks.
– Zach Lipton
2 hours ago
add a comment |
2
Watched a TV episode long ago where some young thieves are trying to use a stolen credit card, get tripped up by new technology. (I think they were counting on a phone outage to make merchants go back to the manual processors.) Hawaii 5-0? Couldn't find it in an index of episodes.
– Andrew Lazarus
9 hours ago