Card Tricks: Bankers, Boomers and the Explosion of Plastic Credit

Jane M. Wilson is a Toronto-based chartered financial analyst in the
investment business.

In 1992, Canadians transacted some $47 billion through their credit
cards. This book may persuade them to leave home without it. The authors
trace the history of credit and other cards, the marketing onslaughts
and internecine wars, the pivotal role played by American Express, and
the parallel growth in consumer debt. They reveal how the habits of
consumers worldwide have been changed by plastic cards, and even how
those habits are monitored. This is a story of power, of cowed
retailers, and of court battles waged by the giant, invisible card
organizations for a monopoly on debit cards.

The book describes the more common usage of EFTS-POS or debit cards in
other countries, and closely scrutinizes the banks’ interest in
weaning us from cash and cheques. It becomes clear that the banks’
favorite marketing ploy is the peremptory linking of respectability and
plastic, yet readers may still be alarmed to learn that a senior
Canadian banker recommended that the government restrict the supply of
cash on the ground that it was the currency of criminals. At the same
time, we read of the cost of card fraud and learn that half of American
credit-card accounts were evaluated by some behavior score. The authors
question the banks’ right to control our lives to such an extent and
warn that electronic money may cost us our privacy, as well as a fee on
every transaction.

Regrettably, the authors have not delved into the effect of credit
cards on monetary policy, their use today in criminal investigations,
and the insidiously passive role of governments in the privatization of
money. They have deliberately focused on banks and their practices, and
in doing so have produced an arresting analysis of a powerful and
ungoverned business. If that allows only an inchoate treatment of
broader aspects, Card Tricks is still essential reading for consumers,
regulators, and even sociologists.