American Express Company was established as early as 1850, which was originally formed by the merger of three express companies. Its express mail and cargo transportation service has won credibility because of its rapidity and reliability. Especially during the American Civil War, American Express was famous for its reliable and convenient delivery of express parcels and letters.

After the American Civil War, the development of the railway system brought about the nationalization of the regional market, and the cross-regional national currency flow became more important. However, because cash is easy to be stolen, in the absence of a national bank, the transfer of funds can only rely on the mail system. Therefore, American post offices should invent a simple check-postal money order. Mailing money orders quickly became a popular way to transfer funds. Today, the way of mailing money orders still exists in the financial system, and American Express soon launched this product.

However, the original products always have various problems. This draft lacks the flexibility to exchange cash, and it is also threatened by theft and forgery. In order to solve this problem, in 189 1 year, an employee of American Express invented traveler's checks. Traveler's checks have many denominations and need double signature verification (signature verification is required when receiving and cashing), thus ensuring the safety of traveler's checks and reducing the losses caused by theft. Traveler's checks soon became one of the important products of American Express. With more and more Americans traveling abroad, American Express's network in Europe has developed very rapidly. 1955, American Express provided customers with about125 billion dollars of traveler's checks, accounting for 75% of the market share of the world traveler's checks industry at that time. By 1977, American Express has distributed 50% of the global traveler's checks. Today, American Express traveler's checks can still be issued in any amount, instead of cash used in many parts of the world.

Get involved in credit cards

Due to the appearance of Dinka, it has gradually become a competitor of American Express traveler's checks. After seeing the rise of Dinka, American Express began to plan to set foot in the charge card market at 1953, and even considered buying Dinka credit cards at 1956. Although the plan was finally abandoned, it was finally acquired at 1958+00. With the resources of 1.75 million special merchants and 250,000 cardholders, the number of cardholders exceeded 600,000 after half a year, reached 750,000 at the end of 1960s, and the amount of contracted accounts exceeded 500 million dollars, revealing the face of credit card predators.

The market target of American Express Card is people with higher income, especially business people who travel frequently. In order to distinguish it from Diner's card and show that American Express Card is a more "fashionable and advanced" card, American Express deliberately set the tone for American Express Card from the beginning-its annual fee is 6 dollars, which is 20% higher than Diner's 5 dollars. The following year, American Express introduced the first plastic card. The main information on the plastic card, such as the card number and the cardholder's name, are embossed, and these information can be printed on the card receipt form through copy paper on the card swiping machine. This innovation not only significantly reduces the risk of forgery, but also eliminates the need for cashiers to manually copy credit card information, greatly simplifying the credit card swiping process.

Initially, due to the lack of experience in issuing cards and operating, some customers failed to pay due, and American Express has been losing money and even considered selling credit card business. At this critical moment, American Express hired George Watt, who was later called "the father of charge cards", to manage the operation. Watt raised the annual fee to $65,438+00, putting pressure on customers who failed to pay on time and strictly managing them. Finally reversed the unfavorable situation of American Express. By the end of 65,438+0962, the number of American Express card merchants had reached 82,000, and the number of cardholders had nearly tripled to 900,000. American Express Debit Card made its first profit.

For glory

From 65438 to 0969, the number of American Express cardholders increased to 3 million, and the transaction volume of nearly 7 billion dollars made American Express debit card business profit tens of millions of dollars. At the same time, the American Express card has adopted a new design this year, changing the main color of the card into a green card similar to the US dollar-the American Express green card. The green card business has become the most eye-catching product of American Express. By 1977, American Express had 6.3 million cardholders and the transaction volume was 20 billion US dollars. Green card holders are more than five times as many as Dinka people, and most of them are business elites. Nearly 50% of American families earning more than $55,000 a year hold American Express green cards. Green cards are widely accepted by tourism-related enterprises, especially in high-end restaurants and shops. E) consumption is completely dominant.

1984, American Express launched the American Express Platinum Card and a series of additional services, which pioneered the credit card service and pointed out the direction for the development of the entire credit card industry. 1September, 1999, American Express issued a blue card with a smart chip, which reached 5.5 million users in just one year. It not only created a miracle in the credit card industry, but also led the application of smart chip technology in credit cards.

1999 American express launched a world-recognized high-end credit card-black gold card.

American Express Guide

The development of American Express is inseparable from several heroes. George Watt, known as the "father of payment cards", laid the foundation for the development of American Express in 1960s. 1985, Guo Shina, who later worked for IBM and wrote his autobiography "Who says elephants can't dance", was promoted to the position of president. He is famous for actively using consumer orientation and promoting a single brand name, and has become one of the heroes in establishing the brand of "American Express Credit Card". During the 1993 crisis, American Express invited Harvey golub to be the CEO of the company. After he took office, he changed his business model, launched a series of products with the American Express logo, and changed his position from elite to public, especially authorized cooperative banks to issue credit cards with the American Express logo. His greatest achievement is that he chose Ken Sheno, the head of American Express. In 200 1 year, Chennault became the new CEO of American Express with excellent performance.

American Express was born Dinka. After 40 years of painstaking efforts and some market sharpening, it has finally achieved the glory of American Express. In 2004, it cooperated with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to issue Peony Express Credit Card in Chinese mainland, in 2007, it cooperated with China CITIC Bank and in 20/0/0 with China Merchants Bank. Later, they successively cooperated with China Bank, Minsheng Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank to issue cards. Although the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States in 2007 had a great impact on American Express, I believe that the glory of American Express will continue and move towards the future.

To be continued: the history of credit cards (4) bank credit cards produced in the later stage