In the 1980s, credit cards worked similarly to how they work today in terms of the payment process. Cardholders would present their credit card to a merchant who would manually imprint the card details onto a sales slip. The transaction would then be authorized through a phone call to the credit card company. The merchant would send the sales slip and other necessary documents to the credit card company for settlement. However, technology advancements during the 80s led to the introduction of electronic authorization terminals, allowing for faster authorization and processing of credit card transactions.