Before 1974, only store cards, Diners Club and American Express were available in Australia and these were either restrictive or only accessible to the wealthy.

[1][2] In the first decade after its introduction, Bankcard dominated the Australian credit card market, with more than five million cardholders at its peak in 1984.

[3] Before Bankcard, the relatively small population of Australia, coupled with its vast geographical spread made a credit card system cost prohibitive for any single Australian bank.

Each member bank issued its own variant of the Bankcard card and each established its own credit rules and maintained direct customer relations with its own cardholders.

[1] Despite this, Bankcard continued to generate profits for member banks, largely because the elderly demographic of cardholders had a low incidence of default.

"[10] Supriya Singh, a professor at RMIT, argued that the introduction of Bankcard marked the beginning of Australia's transformation to virtual money.

[12] The availability of credit cards in Australia after 1974, together with wider financial deregulation, resulted in significant increases in household indebtedness.