Access was a British

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

brand launched by

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...

Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

and

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, i ...

in 1972 to rival the already established

Barclaycard Barclaycard (; stylized as barclaycard) is a brand for credit cards of Barclays PLC. , Barclays had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom. History Barclays launched Barclaycard on 29 June 1966, initially as a charge card, but followi ...

. It became defunct in 1996, when it was taken over by MasterCard.

History

The Access card was introduced in the United Kingdom by a consortium consisting of National Westminster Bank, Midland Bank (now HSBC UK) and Lloyds Bank, later joined by

Williams & Glyn's Bank Williams & Glyn's Bank Limited was established in London in 1970, when the Royal Bank of Scotland merged its two subsidiaries in England and Wales, Williams Deacon's Bank Ltd. and Glyn, Mills & Co. In 1985, Williams & Glyn's was fully absorbed ...

(now RBS) as a rival to the established

. It was established as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

incorporated as The Joint Credit Card Company Limited with Lloyds, Midland and National Westminster banks each owning 30% and Williams & Glyn's owning 10%. The ''Access'' name was registered as a trademark on 26 November 1971 and the product was launched on 23 October 1972. In

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, the card was issued by Williams & Glyn's sister company, the Royal Bank of Scotland and by

Clydesdale Bank Clydesdale Bank ( gd, Banca Dhail Chluaidh) is a trading name used by Clydesdale Bank plc for its retail banking operations in Scotland. In June 2018, it was announced that Clydesdale Bank's holding company CYBG would acquire Virgin Money for ...

, then a subsidiary of Midland Bank. In

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

, it was issued by

Ulster Bank Ulster Bank ( ga, Banc Uladh) is a large retail bank, and one of the traditional Big Four (banking)#Ireland, Big Four Irish clearing banks. The Ulster Bank Group is subdivided into two separate legal entities: NatWest, National Westminster Ban ...

, a subsidiary of NatWest and by

Northern Bank Northern Bank Limited T/A Danske Bank is a retail bank in Northern Ireland. Northern Bank is one of the oldest banks in Ireland having been formed in 1809, and forms part of one of the Big Four banks in Ireland. Northern Bank took on the name ...

, at the time a subsidiary of Midland. The scheme participated in the Eurocard/ MasterCard systems.

Europay International Europay International was a financial company. It was created by the merger of Eurocard International and Eurocheque International and was headquartered in Waterloo, Belgium, on the same premises as EPSS (European Payment Systems Services) and M ...

has since been taken over by MasterCard International. The business was run from several offices in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. The site was subsequently sold on to the Royal Bank of Scotland, before being demolished to make way for a housing development.

Cultural impact

From 1978, the main slogan of Access was ''"Your Flexible Friend"'', which featured in many television advertisements, accompanied by an animated Access and his friend Money (a pound sign). Earlier advertisements featured the bumbling "Fat Wallet". A take on the slogan ("''My'' flexible friend") was featured in the third episode of ''

Mr. Bean ''Mr. Bean'' is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect and starring Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside Curtis and R ...

'', when the title character refers to his own credit card. Another slogan which featured in a television advertisement was ''"Does you does, or does you don't take Access?"'' (sung to the tune of "

Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" is a song written by Louis Jordan and Billy Austin. The song's first recording, by Jordan, was made on October 4, 1943. It was released as the B-side of a single with "G.I. Jive" with the title "Is You Is or Is ...

"). Yet another slogan was ''"It takes the waiting out of wanting"''. Access was shirt sponsor of Southend United Football Club in the beginning of 1980s.

References

External links

History of Plastic Cards
The UK Cards Association
The History of the Access Credit Card
AccessCreditCard.info Financial services companies established in 1972 1972 establishments in the United Kingdom Products introduced in 1972 Companies based in Essex Credit cards HSBC Lloyds Banking Group NatWest Group Southend-on-Sea (town) Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea {{bank-stub