Concept
Discover is a credit card brand issued primarily in the United States. It was introduced by Sears in 1985. When launched, Discover did not charge an annual fee and offered a higher-than-normal credit limit. A subsequent innovation was "Cashback Bonus" on purchases. Most cards with the Discover brand are issued by Discover Bank, formerly the Greenwood Trust Company. Discover transactions are processed through the Discover Network payment network. In 2005, Discover Financial Services acquired Pulse, an electronic funds transfer network, allowing it to market and issue debit and ATM cards. In February 2006, Discover Financial Services announced that it would begin offering Discover debit cards to other financial institutions, made possible by the acquisition of Pulse. Discover is the third largest credit card brand in the U.S. based on the number of cards in circulation, behind Visa and Mastercard, with 57 million cardholders. At the time Discover was introduced, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. It had purchased the Dean Witter Reynolds brokerage organization and Coldwell, Banker & Company (real estate) in 1981 as an attempt to add financial services to its portfolio of customer services. Ray Kennedy, Sr, father of country singer Ray Kennedy and the credit manager for Sears, conceived the card. After a trial period in 1985, starting with a $26.77 purchase at an Atlanta Sears on September 17, the actual launch was pushed through by Philip J. Purcell and Mitchell M. Merin, the company's senior vice president for corporate administration and manager of financial analysis, respectively. Together with the Discover Card (and its issuing bank, the Greenwood Trust Company, owned by Sears), this was named the Sears Financial Network. Early Discover Cards bore a small embossed symbol representing the Sears Tower, then the company's headquarters. Discover was part of Dean Witter, and then Morgan Stanley, until 2007, when Discover Financial Services became an independent company.