Which bank issued the first universal credit card in 1958?

Bank of America issued the first successful universal credit card in 1958.

On September 18, 1958, Bank of America launched BankAmericard in Fresno, California. The program was designed as an all-purpose revolving credit card that customers could use at many participating merchants rather than at only one store or business. It became the first successful large-scale program recognizable as the modern bank credit card.

Bank of America chose Fresno as a manageable test market and sent tens of thousands of cards to local residents. The strategy helped solve the “chicken-and-egg” problem of payment cards: merchants needed customers to have cards, while customers needed many merchants to accept them.

This history is often confused with Diners Club, introduced in 1950. Diners Club was an earlier general-purpose charge card, but it generally required the balance to be paid in full. BankAmericard introduced the successful bank-backed revolving-credit model that later developed into Visa.