Canadian credit and debt-payment solutions, founded in 1994
Before a missed payment became your problem
Assured Card was founded in British Columbia in 1994 by Maynard L. Dokken, as a Canadian consumer credit and debt-payment company.[1] Its product was a credit line that covered a payment before a missed payment could trigger higher interest or a credit adjustment, run alongside a six-step program for financial stability.[2]
Assured Card is not operating at this time.
- Month 1Paid
- Month 2Paid
- Month 3Paid
- Month 4MissedCovered by the credit line
- Month 5Paid
- Month 6Paid
What Assured Card did
A missed payment can raise what a borrower pays: a card issuer, for example, can move a late account to a higher interest rate, often called a penalty APR.[5][6] Assured Card was built to stop that escalation before it started.[1] Its credit line stepped in before a missed payment could trigger interest increases or credit adjustments, and covered the payment so that the customer’s credit standing and rate were preserved.[2]
The company described its service in five parts:
- Cover missed payments
- A credit line that stepped in before a missed payment triggered interest increases or credit adjustments, protecting the customer’s financial standing before problems started.[2]
- Account managers
- Banks adjust interest rates to manage risk. The company’s account managers worked with each customer on consolidation and coverage options, with the aim of reducing the customer’s interest burden.
- A six-step plan
- A written plan, a priority score card and the tools to track and achieve financial goals: the 6-Step Financial Stability Program.[2]
- Mentors
- Access to mentors who had faced similar financial pressures: real advice from people who found solutions and came out the other side.
- Referrals
- A member who referred others had the $29 annual fee waived, and referrals beyond the fee raised the member’s payment limits.[2]
Where the payment-terminal idea started
The idea of a payment terminal started at Assured Card in 1995, when the volume and cost of paper applications and payments were overwhelming the company.
Work on the technology began in late 1996. Both dates are the account of the company and of its founder, Maynard L. Dokken. The record of those years sets out the steps behind it and where they led.
Assured Card’s enrollment began on paper: forms were printed, mailed to customers, returned and processed by hand at the office.[7] At a $29 annual fee the paper process cost too much, and a form in the mail could be opened by anyone who handled it.[7] The answer was to move customers onto a secure electronic system.[8] In 1994, and still in 1996, that could not mean a public website, so Assured Card’s system was a closed, terminal-based one: a customer reached it only by installing a specially packaged Netscape browser that the company distributed, and connected over SSL.[8]
The terminal, its install package and the gateway behind it were developed from 1996 by a separate company, Assured Credit,[8] whose brief was a terminal through which a payment and a credit application could be taken together over a secure connection.[4] The same way in, a packaged Netscape browser, reappears in Assured Credit’s browser-based payment terminal, version 2.0, of 1999.[9][10]
The 6-Step Financial Stability Program
Around the credit line ran a structured program for debt stability, closer to a debt-management and credit-counselling plan than to a lender’s product.[2] The company described it as a system to help customers reach lasting financial stability and work-life balance. It had six steps, taken in order:[2]
- Simple Income Expense Number: Establish your baseline: understand exactly where you stand financially before making any decisions.
- Expense Reduction Rewards List: Identify what can be reduced and create a reward system that makes cutting expenses feel like winning.
- High Interest Debt Reduction: Target the debt that costs the most first. The company’s account managers found the options that fit each customer’s situation.
- Safety Net Plan Amount: Build the buffer that prevents a missed payment from becoming a crisis. Defined, achievable, yours.
- Time Benefits Priority Score Card: Score your financial priorities by time and benefit. Know exactly what to focus on and when.
- Work Life Financial Rewards & Goals: Tie your financial plan to the life you want. Real goals, real rewards, real momentum.
The six steps in full, each with practical guidance for today and its sources
Figures, in the company’s words
Two figures appeared in Assured Card’s own materials. The first is the company’s statement, and the record gives it in the same way; the second is the year of the founding, which the record also gives.
| Figure | What it counts | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000+ customers, 1994–1999 | Customers served from the founding to 1999. | The company’s own figure. The record gives it as about 10,000 customers between 1994 and 1999, by the company’s own account.[3] |
| Founded in 1994 | The year the company was founded. | The record gives the year of the founding.[1] |
“Our credit & debt payment solution successfully assisted over 10,000 customers from 1994–1999…”
Maynard L. Dokken, President and CEO
Assured Card and Assured Credit
In 1996 Assured Card set up a separate development company, Assured Credit, so that its engineering stood apart from the consumer business.[4] Assured Credit built the secure terminal and the payment technology behind it.[8] Its browser-based payment terminal, version 2.0, dates from 1999, and in 1999 its work merged into Milinx Business Group.[10][11] The engineering is documented on assuredcredit.co.
The founder
Assured Card was founded by Maynard L. Dokken, who was its President and CEO.[1] It is one of the ventures in his record, after SuccessInc and before Assured Credit and Milinx.[12] Assured Card in the record sets out the company’s history with its sources.
About this page
This page replaces the earlier site’s page at the same address, assuredcard.co/. It was rebuilt on 7 November 2026 from the record on maynardldokken.com, the pages of Assured Credit, and the company’s own earlier pages, which are the company’s account. Where those sources lack a date or a detail, this page does not supply one.
References
Numbered in the order they are first cited on this page. Each entry links back to the places that cite it.
- ↑ a b c d e f Assured Card. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Assured Card: “The product and program”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ a b Assured Card: “Industry context and the corporate record”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ a b c Assured Credit: “Origins (1996)”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ What is a penalty APR?. Experian, Ask Experian.
- ↑ Penalty interest. Wikipedia.
- ↑ a b Assured Card: “The paper problem — cost and security”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ a b c d Assured Card: “The move to a secure terminal”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ Innovations behind Assured Credit’s payment gateway: “Step 2: Assured Card and the problem of a secure channel”. Assured Credit, assuredcredit.co, 3 November 2026.
- ↑ a b Assured Credit: “The on-premise terminal”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ Assured Credit: “Into Milinx”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 3 November 2026.
- ↑ Maynard L. Dokken: “Assured Card (1994)”. Maynard L. Dokken, maynardldokken.com, updated 4 November 2026.
Further reading
Background on terms and records the page mentions. These sources are not cited for any statement.
- Payment terminal. Wikipedia.
- Innovations behind Assured Credit’s payment gateway, 1987–1999. Assured Credit, assuredcredit.co, 3 November 2026.
- Pros and cons of debt consolidation. Britannica Money.
- Netscape Navigator. Wikipedia.