Barclaycard
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Barclaycard is a credit card provider owned by Barclays Bank in the UK. The Barclaycard was the first credit card introduced in the UK, coming into service in 1966. It enjoyed a monopoly until the introduction of the Access card in 1972.Barclaycard later became part of the VISA network. Nowadays, Barclays offers both MasterCard and VISA versions. Barclaycard claims it is Europe's leading issuer of credit cards with 11 million in circulation, and that it issues one in five UK cards. Barclaycard's main offices are in Northampton, along with several floors of the One Churchill Place building in Canary Wharf, where Barclays main business is based.
Barclaycard was also the main sponsor of The Premiership (from 2001–2004) until Barclays itself took over at the start of the 2005-2006 season.
Providian
In 2002 Barclaycard took over the UK wing of the American Company Providian National Bank when it was sold off due to financial irregularities of its American parent company. Providian's former base in Crawley (West Sussex) is now fully part of the Barclaycard group, mainly catering for the very lower end of the credit card market. This targeting of the less affluent has created a lot of controversy as invariably the people targeted have existing financial problems.External link
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