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Cardboard or Plastic?
In the mid to late 1960s, the current
account becomes at last portable with the issue to customers of Martins Bank
Bankers Card. Remember, the number of CASH MACHINES
in
the UK is only just into double figures, so if the holder of cheque card
finds themselves in a town without a branch of Martins, they are at least
able to cash a cheque up to the value of £30 (quite a useful sum at that
time), at any of the participating banks: Looking more like something you had
carefully cut out from the back of a breakfast cereal packet, these quaint
yet perfectly functional cheque guarantee cards are actually in use well into
the early 1970s when they are gradually replaced by the more familiar
(clinical) plastic variety.
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BANKERS
CARD
ISSUED BY:
Lloyds Bank Ltd
Martins Bank Limited
Williams Deacon’s Bank
Ltd
Yorkshire Bank Ltd
Glyn Mills and Company
The National Bank Ltd
Lewis’s Bank Ltd
Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland
National Commercial
Bank of Scotland Ltd
Bank of Ireland
Hibernian Bank Ltd
The National Bank of
Ireland Ltd
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Shame indeed, but thinking about it
logically, why did no-one think of making a plastic cheque card, at a time
when plastic credit and charge cards were already in use in
the UK?
 For Barclays, the
smart move is into a small piece of plastic – one which will outlast any
cardboard counterpart, and more importantly come to revolutionise the way we
spend (or, more accurately BORROW) our money for decades to come. The BARCLAYCARD is invented, and the idea
of a credit card that can also be used to guarantee cheques is born. Another crucial step is to ADVERTISE the
new concept of Barclaycard on TV – but how?
A gentleman’s agreement amongst all eleven
English Clearing Banks means that NO bank will Advertise alone on TV. As we find out now from John Dalton, Former
Barclaycard Advertising Manager, the dithering over being the first bank to
advertise on TV went on into the 1970s, with Barclays believing they had
succeeded in 1972. Then in 1989, a somewhat embarrassing discovery is made….
A Gentleman’s Agreement?
 To say that “Barclaycard ‘A piece of Plastic’” was a TV commercial
isn’t strictly true and it obscures a fascinating
aspect of early bank television advertising history. That film was used only
in cinemas and at promotional events. Until
the 1970s, all the English banks honoured an agreement that none of them would advertise on television; the only bank
advertising being screened in those days was the famous “Bank Manager in the Cupboard” screened
by the Committee of London Clearing Banks. In
1972 Barclays believed that another bank might break the agreement. For a
competitor to be able to say that they were first on television was a
prospect (that Barclays general managers couldn’t possibly contemplate –
(neither did they want to be the Villains’ who broke the agreement). Barclaycard was the perfect solution; we were given a
hefty supplementary budget of £93,000 just to get on
the air first.
Les Priestley and I supervised the production of
two commercials during our lunch break one day. They were made at ITN’s West
End studios and the whole job was done in less than 20 minutes; in later
years I would go overseas with Alan Whicker
for a whole two weeks, spend three times as much
on production and come back with three commercials! Serious planned television advertising from Barclaycard
didn’t begin until 1978 when we made jewellers
Shop with Dudley Moore. Having said
all that, it was not until 1989 that we discovered that the very first
Barclaycard television commercial wasn’t by Barclays at all. It was made in
about 1967 by the British Linen Bank (who at that time offered Barclaycard to
their Scottish customers) and was shown only North of the Border.
John’s comments were orignially written in a letter to
Barclays Connection Magazine in 2000 and are reproduced here by kind
permission of Barclays’ Connection. Advertisement and Barclaycard Name and Logo © Barclays and all
other rights holders 1966 to date.
Martins
Bank is first on TV in England!
The story above solves another minor mystery in Martins Bank’s history –
their 1968 TV advertisement for Martins Unicorn is shown by three ITV
companies – Granada, Yorkshire and Southern.
These areas have the largest concentrations of Martins Bank Branches and
customers. By perhaps taking notice of the British Linen Bank’s lead for
advertising in Scotland the product of a Barclays SUBSIDIARY company, Martins too is able to circumvent
the special agreement, and in the process it becomes the first bank to
advertise on TV in England, AND without looking like the villain of the
piece! Our search for a copy of the
Martins ad continues, but you can see stills from it, and read more about how
it was made, by clicking HERE.
The
long and winding road to credit scoring…
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As preparations for
the merger of Martins Bank and Barclays Bank gain pace, Barclays spots an
early opportunity to offer its still new Credit Card facility to the
customers of Martins Bank.
Not EVERY
customer of course, mostly just those with a particularly high “net
worth”. This fairly innocent looking
letter turns up on the doormats of the fairly well to do, inviting them on
an opt-OUT only basis to enjoy the use of their very own BARCLAYCARD.
 It is interesting
to note, that since its arrival in 1966, the Barclaycard was capable by
1969 of offering credit via 42,000 outlets – nothing close to the many
millions that are today shared amongst thousands of card issuers around the
World, but nevertheless impressive for the time. In the late 1960s, religion and a very
“British” state of mind meant that many would shy away from the thought of
using credit, “never a borrower, nor a lender be” uppermost in their minds.
However, the credit bug became irresistible, and helped by a clarification
of customer rights in the 1974 Consumer Credit Act, we’ve been borrowing on
the “never never” ever since. It is
a sobering thought that in the 2020s we are encouraged to build a CREDIT
rating, rather than to save for the things we need. The invention of the DEBIT card in the
early 1980s was greeted with suspicion by many, who could not separate out
in their minds the difference between a plastic cheque and a credit card.
Now, debit cards are indispensable, and along with being able to pay by
mobile phone, watches and other devices, the days of cash itself are
numbered, along with those of most Bank Branches. Credit alone is no longer
enough – you must also stay permanently wired into your own “credit score”,
otherwise, it would seem, you are not a very good person at all…
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