Choice (credit card)
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Choice was a credit card test marketed by Citibank in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. It was one of the first cards to offer a cash-refund program and no annual fee. Choice was intended to create a rival to Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
The card was introduced in 1977, when Citibank bought NAC, a regional credit card based in Baltimore, renaming it Choice. A subsequent campaign in Maryland in 1980 turned the card into a regional success, earning more than one million cardholders in the Baltimore and Washington, DC, area. With a view to nationwide expansion, the test market was expanded to include Colorado. Ultimately, despite the success of Sears' Discover Card, which offered many of the same features as Choice when it was introduced in 1985, Citibank decided Choice could not compete with Visa and MasterCard in the longer term, and the card was reissued as a Visa at the end of 1987, aimed at entry-level customers and those with poor credit.[1]
Its fate was similar to that of Citibank's first credit card, the "First National City Charge Service" (or "Everything" card), introduced on the East Coast in 1967 to compete with BankAmericard (today's Visa) but which became part of Master Charge (now MasterCard) in 1969.[2]
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