Throughout history, human beings have relied on some sort of payment system to purchase the goods or services we wanted or needed. Starting with the bartering system, humans began to use livestock, grain, shells, metal coins, pieces of white deerskin, the wampum, gold, the gold-backed dollar, charge cards, credit cards, the U.S. dollar and, most recently, electronic payments. If there has been one consistent theme regarding the evolution of payments, it’s that we prefer payments that are convenient and transactional. These preferences began to take shape in the early 20th century with the introduction of the charge card. Despite being first mentioned by Edward Bellamy in 1887’s “Looking Backward,” the first charge card didn’t’ appear until 1921 when a charge card was issued to Western Union customers. Soon after, department stores, service stations and hotels also began offering charge cards to customers so they didn’t have to travel to their hometown bank. After the introdu...