• The name Visa is actually a recursive acronym - it stands for Visa International Service Association.
• The first credit card system to use holograms to deter fraud was MasterCard, way back in 1984.
• If you make a purchase on your credit card and never receive the goods, you can have the transaction reversed by your bank.
• Merchants are not permitted to impose a minimum transaction amount (e.g. minimum credit card purchase $10).
• Merchants are not permitted to charge a surcharge for MasterCard or Visa transactions, however American Express does not explicitly forbid the practice.
• There are two types of magnetic strips on credit cards - black (high-coercivity) and dark brown (low-coercivity). High coercivity strips are more durable.
• American Express began as a shipping company in 1850, servicing banks with stock certificates, money orders and traveller's cheques. They didn't move in to credit cards until the late 1950s.
• The blue and yellow Visa colours represent the sky and the hills of California where Bank of American began.
• Despite the expiration date, credit cards don't 'expire'. You can continue to use them after this period because the card number remains the same. Banks apply 'expiration dates' because of the physical wear-and-tear on the card.
• Minors are not legally required to repay any debt they accumulate with a credit card because it's illegal to enter into a contract with them. Where an adult guardian is a co-signer or the primary cardholder, they become responsible for the debt.
• Your payments aren't applied to the oldest debt first - they're applied to the amounts with the lowest interest rate. This is especially true of balance transfers.
• Credit cards are all a uniform size and shape. They're governed by the ISO 7810 standard.

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