- Access (credit card)
Access is a former
credit card introduced inGreat Britain in 1972 by a consortium ofNational Westminster Bank ,Midland Bank (nowHSBC ),Lloyds Bank (nowLloyds TSB ) and TheRoyal Bank of Scotland , as a rival to the establishedBarclaycard (VISA ). It was also issued in bothNorthern Ireland and theRepublic of Ireland byUlster Bank , a subsidiary of NatWest,Northern Bank , then a subsidiary of Midland, andBank of Ireland which was unconnected to the founder banks. The card scheme was run fromSouthend-on-Sea inEssex , by theJoint Credit Card Company Limited. It participated in the Eurocard/MasterCard systems.Europay International SA has since been taken over by MasterCard International itself.One of the early slogans was "Your flexible friend" (which was featured in an episode of Mr. Bean); another slogan which featured in a television advertisement was "does you does, or does you don't take Access", accompanied by an animated Access and his friend Money (a pound sign). Access merged with the international credit card brand MasterCard in 1996. Some businesses still advertise as accepting the Access card as old signage has not been removed. The brand is considered nostalgic in the
United Kingdom , in a similar manner to the formerMidland Bank griffin logo.External links
* [http://www.apacs.org.uk/payment_options/documents/Plastic%20Cards%20_%20History%20of%20Plastic%20Cards%20in%20the%20UK%20v1.pdf Association for Payment Clearing Services] "History of Plastic Cards"
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