There have been many changes in the way we handle financial tractions during the past few years. Today we go into a store and make a purchase we expect that store to accept our credit or debit cards. Even the fast food restaurants are now accepting plastic to pay for purchases. It has not always been that way.

Credit or the act of giving an individual something with the promise of payment for that item or service at a later date is probably older then money. But after the concept of money was invented it became much easy to loan money, rather then some form of barter, as a medium of exchange. It was soon found that money could be loaned with interest for the privilege of using that money. Thus loaning money became a way of making more money.

The origin of the phrase, "just put that on my tab," has been lost to antiquity but somewhere in times past merchants began to let people take things with the promise that when all the cost of the items were added up at an agreed time and submitted as a bill the person responsible for paying for those items that bill would be pay. This made it possible for people to make purchases without carrying around large amounts of cash it also made it possible for workers to make authorized purchases for their job without having to use their own money or carry money from their boss.

Bills were usually paid for with a check which allowed the exchange of the money to take place within the banks and thus neither the merchant nor the customer needed to handle the necessary cash to complete the transaction. Checks also became the medium of exchange at the time of the transaction which again meant no actual cash was passed between the one being paid and the one paying.

The first checks is believed to have been used by the Romans in approximately 325 BCE but it was not until the 1500's that checks started to become a common medium of exchange. These early check transactions were done in Holland. Around 1681 businesses in the American colonies started accepting checks.

England is believed to be the place where the term check originated when they started putting serial numbers on these paper transactions so they could "check" (keep track) on them. British banker Lawrence Childs is credited with being the first to issue printed checks in 1762.

The first records of cards being used as a medium of exchange in the world of finances is 1914 when the Western Union started issuing metal plates or "cards" to their employees in place of paychecks. The cards were honored only in the company store.

In 1946 banker John Biggins set up agreements with local merchants that allowed customers to say "Charge-it" and the merchants would send the bill to Biggins' bank which would pay for the sale then later would collect from the customer. There was no need for the use card for these transactions because it was done on a local level and identification was easily established but it did pave the way for a wider use of credit.

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