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

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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.

60 years today since American Express UK launched
Image from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum

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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Comments (57)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • BJ says:
    10 Sep10 September 06:29

    “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.”

    That must be very humiliating for certain cohort here including the author 🙂

    • Sapiens says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:00

      … explain?

    • meta says:
      10 Sep10 September 08:39

      As I said the other day, you can’t escape politics no matter what you do. 🙂

    • BJ says:
      10 Sep10 September 08:49

      Don’t politicise my comments please, I was just poking the London-passionate bears, in fun I may add.

      • Gordon says:
        10 Sep10 September 09:08

        Apologies in advance, as it was not the best day in the comments section Re the DM article!

        @BJ I believe you as I think you may have temporarily turned a corner 😉

        “Back up to 98, I added a few. None political …. unusual for me”.

    • Ironside says:
      10 Sep10 September 13:36

      Basic geography?

  • hedgecock says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:15

    “The first American Express Card was launched in 1958.
    …..
    It was another 45 years before the company would introduce its first pound sterling American Express Card (technically a charge card) in 1963”.

    Rhys’ ongoing struggle with the English language continues, I see

    • RussellH says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:59

      … explain?

      • Nick says:
        10 Sep10 September 08:04

        1958 to 1963 isn’t a 45 year gap

      • CarpalTravel says:
        10 Sep10 September 08:09

        I think they were trying to snarkily point out a mathematical issue, not an English issue. Ironic.

        • Mark says:
          10 Sep10 September 09:01

          I think it means 45 years after 1918. I wonder if Rhys subsequently added the intervening paragraph.

          • Nick says:
            10 Sep10 September 09:18

            It’s wrong, plain and simple, and entirely fair that people can point that out. Proof reading has never been one of HFP’s priorities! Shame though, as such a glaring continuity error leaves a sour taste in what is actually a very good and incredibly interesting article.

          • Rob says:
            10 Sep10 September 09:39

            It’s not wrong, per se – I think the middle paragraph went in later and that makes it unclear what the ‘45’ refers to.

      • WaynedP says:
        10 Sep10 September 13:14

        Mismatched tenses. Should be either

        It would be another 45 years before the company would introduce…

        Or

        It was another 45 years before the company introduced…

    • Rob says:
      10 Sep10 September 09:21

      I think a paragraph got inserted later. 45 years refers to 45 years after 1918.

      However the intermediate para about the US launch in 1958 confuses things.

  • Andrew. says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:17

    C F Frost

    And so started a long tradition of banks making up names to emboss on their cards in adverts

    BoS was the Grants family, RBS was the Granger, Barclays the Stephens, Access, the Williams, Natalie West is obvious. Halifax had the rather dull “A N Other”

    • RussellH says:
      10 Sep10 September 07:58

      Almost every German languge card advert I have seen has the name “Max Mustermann”
      Muster is German for sample, so the name could be very roughly translated as Max Another.

  • sip says:
    10 Sep10 September 07:51

    What would be quite nice is if for the special edition card designs that they make, they make a version of the original design.

    • Jonathan says:
      10 Sep10 September 08:41

      There’s no point to it if there’s no market, hence is why they occasionally retire card products that hardly anyone uses, like the Iconic Green charge card, I’m not sure if it’ll be kept alive for existing card members (as Amex call them) or they’ll told that their card is being cancelled, and these are the options, notably for someone in that sort of position the free MR card (ARCC) or Gold (preferred rewards).

      • lumma says:
        10 Sep10 September 09:17

        I don’t think they usually close existing cards down. I’ve still got a Project (RED) AMEX, which I don’t think has been available to new customers since the late 00’s. I occasionally see Harrods cards too in the wild

      • Carl says:
        12 Sep12 September 19:02

        I downgraded from the Gold charge to the Green card 6 weeks ago, so it’s still available.

    • Paul says:
      10 Sep10 September 18:54

      I agree and how difficult can it be to allow the image on Apple Pay to be changed. It’s rare for me now to get the metal card out as anything under £100 is paid by phone while anything over tends to be on line

  • Gordon says:
    10 Sep10 September 08:59

    Sunday fun facts!

    American Express contributed one penny for each purchase made in 1983 to restoring the Statue of Liberty.
    The Statue of Liberty campaign was titled “For Liberty’s Sake”. It featured Lady Liberty with her torch aglow on a rich blue background.

    Everyone is familiar with the “Don’t leave home without it.” slogan. But Batman took it to a new level. In the movie “Batman Forever” he pulls out a Bat-Credit card and then says that he “never leaves the cave without it”.

  • lumma says:
    10 Sep10 September 09:13

    I suspect that 123 Main Street, Centerville USA, is a made up address

  • Dirtyneedlebluesky says:
    10 Sep10 September 09:51

    I wonder when American Express first experienced fraud with those paper cards?!🤔

  • Jonathan says:
    10 Sep10 September 09:52

    It’s not noted on here when the Centurion card (or metal) was launched, an very rare thing that’s seen, even though it still accepts new customers

    • PJ100 says:
      10 Sep10 September 10:02

      1999

    • Luma says:
      10 Sep10 September 11:00

      Maybe anecdotal, but from working in London restaurants for the past 10 years, I’ve saw more centurion cards than Marriott/SPG or Nectar amexes

      • Jonathan says:
        10 Sep10 September 11:05

        Depends what sort of restaurants you’ve worked at, go to low end cheaper to eat places, you’ll probably only really see debit cards, top end restaurants, then of course you’ll see more of the higher end range cards, it’s almost certainly exactly the same in hotels

        • Luma says:
          10 Sep10 September 21:14

          I’ve worked in all kinds of restaurants and really don’t see much of a difference in the “quality” of the card used. I’ve seen people buying £2k bottles of wine with bog standard current accounts and I’ve seen centurion cards used in Frankie and Benny’s

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