This week we’ll hear the fun story of how credit cards first came about, we’ll look at a Capital One / T-Mobile credit card rumor, and will talk about Hertz’s introduction of an AI-powered system for rental car inspection.
Credit cards were invented because a businessman forgot his wallet.
According to this article, the credit card was invented in 1949 by a businessman who had the mortifying experience of forgetting to bring his wallet with him to a restaurant (the Major’s Cabin Grill in New York City) while dining with clients. To solve for this kind of embarrassing experience, he created the “Diner’s Club”, which provided a card you could present at participating businesses. Just as you would normally have a running tab at an individual restaurant in those days, this would instead become a running tab with Diner’s Club who would act as an intermediary, charging you monthly for the consolidated amount of your various tabs (plus processing fees) then paying those onward to each business accordingly. Apparently this was a very common pain point because by the end of its first year, there were 42,000 card holders and 330 different participating businesses.
[Rumor] Capital One To Launch T-Mobile Credit Card
Rumor alert! The “tmo.report” found a file (a mockup of a Capital One T-Mobile credit card) called “‘t_card_account_link” in the T-Life app (a T-Mobile support app). Does this confirm rumors of a cobranded Capital One / T-Mobile credit card? It’s hard to imagine why such an image/file would exist otherwise, but it also hard to call that verification. What do you think?
Uh Oh: Hertz’s New AI Technology Detects Vehicle Damage
Hertz has announced it’s partnering with a company called “UVeye” (an AI-driven vehicle inspection system) to manage their vehicle maintenance process. This somewhat sci-fi-sounding system would have a bunch of cameras that you would drive through as you enter and exit the car rental facility which would apparently have that magic AI ability to assess the vehicle’s condition. It would send that report to you, and use the report to find damages or maintenance issues. Can it really catch everything though? Specifically, Hertz says this will allow for inspections of “a vehicle’s body, glass, tires, and undercarriage”. So…what about the interior?
What do we think gang – is this bound to be just as flawed as the 6-fingered humanoids AI generates, or so un-flawed that we’ll be paying for every little scratch that a human would have previously shrugged off? Or maybe it will be just right.
What do you think?
Loading ...Ready or not, they intend to start this service in the Atlanta Airport and hope to launch in all major US airports by the end of the year.
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If the guy forgot his wallet, presumably he’d have forgot his Diners Club card too.
I’m not sure about the T-Mobile Cap1 credit card, however in a recent interview with Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the Cap1-Discover merger was mentioned as becoming the biggest CC issuer at which point Dimon replied “for now” and “let them compete” so the battle for CC supremacy appears to be escalating. This might partially explain the timing of the CSP and Freedom Unlimited sign-up bonus increases.
If this is true, then I would expect more aggressive promotions from both Chase and Cap1, which is good for the miles and points players. Happy Easter everyone.
The story about Diners Club is absolutely true. The original card was printed (typed) on card stock about the size of a business card. Later moved to plastic, which was smaller than what we use today. Had one decades ago.