It’s 60 years since American Express UK launched its £ cards – we look back …. and reveal C F Frost

You probably haven’t given much thought to the history of the plastic in your wallet, but after American Express told us that today was 60 years since it launched its first Sterling card in the UK we thought it was worth taking a trip down memory lane.

American Express wasn’t always a financial services company. Founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York, American Express was initially a freight forwarding company (hence the ‘Express’).

Around the turn of the century (the 20th century, that is), Amex diversified and started offering money orders, travellers cheques and foreign currency exchange. It opened its first UK office in London’s 3 Waterloo Place in 1896. The first European office of any sort was in Paris, opening in 1895.

According to Amex:

“From 1914 – 1918 during World War I, American Express helped 150,000 stranded travellers in Europe by cashing Travellers Cheques and booking passage to America, at a time when customers had been unable to withdraw funds from their banks.”

Following the US nationalisation of express industry after the first World War in 1918, American Express focused wholly on its banking and travel services.

The first American Express Card was launched in 1958. It was a paper card in purple (photo above); embossed plastic cards followed in 1959. In 1969 the colour of the card changed to “money green” to match the colour of the US dollar.

It was another five years before the company would introduce its first pound sterling American Express Card (technically a charge card) in 1963.

Upon its launch, the BBC noted that:

“There will be an annual fee of £3 12s, but supplementary cards can be obtained at half price for immediate family members. Companies can also apply for cards and issue them to members of staff.”

Adjusted for inflation, £3 12s is around £90; average weekly earnings in 1963 were around £10 according to the Office for National Statistics. The BBC continues:

“American Express Vice President Maxwell Elliot said the people most likely to take up the new card would be managers and sales executives earning £2,000 a year or more.”

Whilst often synonymous with credit and charge cards, American Express was not the first provider in the UK; that was Finders Services, which launched in 1951 and merged with Credit Card Services to form Diners Club UK in 1962.

It was almost 20 years until Amex launched the Gold Card in 1981, with the Platinum Card following 10 years later in 1991. The card designs haven’t changed much in that time.

Membership Rewards, then known as Membership Miles, were introduced in 1993 and the first ‘proper’ American Express credit card was launched in 1995.

In 2000, American Express partnered with British Airways to launch the he British Airways American Express cards.

The rest, as they say, is history.

PS. Things you never knew you never knew ….

And finally ….

“Charles F. Frost was an Oglivy & Mather advertising executive who worked on the American Express account in the 1960s, and his name was kept alive by being featured on credit cards displayed in ads for American Express.”

Thanks to Adweek for this nugget.

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