Credit cards are big business. Americans spend $16 billion a year on cards and there are already 590 million of them in circulation. Many banks sponsor their own credit card companies and issue cards free to their customers. Other credit card companies charge their members annual dues. The stores that accept credit cards must pay a small fee to the credit card company — a percentage of the purchase price of the merchandise or service.

In turn， the credit card company promptly pays the store for the merchandise or service. Credit card companies make a profit from the fees they charge the store and also from the fees collected from customers who pay for their charges in monthly installments. However， credit card companies sometimes have problems collecting overdue payments from unreliable customers. Also，the use of stolen， lost， or counterfeit credit card by criminals has become a big headache for the credit card company that is responsible for the goods and services illegally charged to its customers' account.

Many feel that it will only be a matter of time before credit cards completely replace cash and checks for both individuals and businesses. In such a credit card economy there would be only one“super-credit-card-bank-company” and each individual would be given his or her card.

信用卡是賺錢的大買賣。美國(guó)人每年在信用卡上要消費(fèi)16億美元，已經(jīng)有5.90億張信用卡在流通。許多銀行開辦自己的信用卡公司，并免費(fèi)發(fā)給他們的客戶。其他的信用卡公司向他們的會(huì)員收取年費(fèi)。接受信用卡的商店必須向信用卡公司支付少量費(fèi)用——按商品成交額或勞務(wù)費(fèi)用的一定百分率計(jì)算。

相反，信用卡公司則隨時(shí)向商店支付購(gòu)貨及勞務(wù)的款項(xiàng)。信用卡公司向商店收取費(fèi)用，以及向按月分期付款的客戶收取費(fèi)用，從而獲得利潤(rùn)。然而，信用卡公司在向不講信用的客戶收取逾期款項(xiàng)時(shí)也會(huì)遇到麻煩。還有，不法分子使用被盜、丟失、或假信用卡，對(duì)信用卡公司來(lái)說是件頭痛的事，因?yàn)樵诳蛻舻馁~目中如記有不合法的商品和勞務(wù)支付，公司就得承擔(dān)全部責(zé)任。

許多人認(rèn)為，信用卡完全代替現(xiàn)金，取代個(gè)人、企業(yè)支票只是時(shí)間問題。在這種信用卡經(jīng)濟(jì)中，要是只有一家“超級(jí)信用卡銀行公司”，那人人就會(huì)得到信用卡。