Fifty Years of Plastic ; `Fresno Drop' Changed Americans' Use of Credit.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. - They called it the Fresno Drop.

Fifty years ago this month, Bank of America mass-mailed to nearly every home in Fresno, Calif., a small piece of plastic called the BankAmericard. The credit card had arrived, a shiny corkscrew for each recipient to unbottle thousands of dollars in spending money that hadn't existed before they ripped open those envelopes.

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Extract

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Fifty Years of Plastic ; `Fresno Drop' Changed Americans' Use of Credit.

That first taste went right to Fresno's head. By the second year, cardholders had racked up nearly $60 million in purchases. BankAmericard morphed into the Visa powerhouse. And a half-century later, as America embraced and then expo...

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