How Credit Cards Work

By Paul Cris

A credit card is a piece of plastic, which carries information electronically. A person can use the credit card by just swiping it on a credit card reader to send the card information to be verified. The size of the credit card is 3-1/8” x 2-1/8”. You can use the credit card to buy products and can pay them later. That is why it is also called as electronic money.

The shiny stripe on the back of the credit card is called as magstripe, which is the main thing in the credit card. When a person swipes the credit card in the magstripe reader the information is sent to the central tracking system, which has all the information about the card owner, balance details, country, zip code etc. There are trillions of credit cards issued in the U.S. People have a minimum of 2 credit cards in their name.

With e-commerce picking up, the amount of money spent through credit card is set to rise. If credit cards are used wisely, it could be a great tool. Most of the consumers don’t use it in a correct manner and don’t pay the monthly credit card bills on time. If you don’t pay your credit card bills on time, then the interest rates will add on to the principal and the amount payable would increase. The rates of interest charged by credit card companies are very high. So, use your credit cards wisely.

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