Did you know that… The term "credit card" first appeared in the realm of science fiction. It was introduced by author Edward Bellamy in his 1888 novel *Looking Backward*. In this utopian novel set in the year 2000, Bellamy describes a future society where people use a form of "credit card" to make purchases. This early concept of a credit card is different from what we use today but laid the groundwork for the idea of a card-based payment system. Bellamy's vision involved a system where citizens could access their share of the nation's wealth through a card that debited from their government-provided credit, rather than borrowing money as in modern credit card systems.