In these perhaps much cost conscious times, overt signs of wealth could be frowned upon? But for some, aspiring to the well-heeled celebrity lifestyle of the very rich and famous means ownership of an original Amex Black card.

This isn’t you’re everyday credit card and most of us will never become account holders. But for those that do, here’s some of the including perks:

1. Top seats at space related events, plus credit for any future space flight reservations (a la Virgin Galactic)
2. Private after-hours previews at top designer stores including Gucci and Armani.
3. Pick your own credit card limit. Spending sprees of more than £1m in a single transaction have been known.
4. Free cabin upgrades on cruises, plus a £1000 credit for the mini-bar.
5. Insurance cover of £25,000 for lost or damaged items bought on the Amex Black.
6. It’s actually made of platinum – so it’ll trigger the metal detectors at the airport
7. Concierge service to organise tickets, bookings, etc for you.
8. It’s delivered by security guard and is presented in a black, velvet lined box.
9. £1.75m life insurance cover.
10. A dedicated Amex Black phone line, giving you access to medical, legal and financial advice.

Here in the UK we’ve been using credit cards since 1967 when the Barclaycard was first introduced. But the history of the credit card goes back much further than that…

1887 The idea of a card used for purchases appears in Edward Eellamy’s novel Looking Backward

1920s Credit cards were used in the US to sell petrol to the increasing number of car owners

1951 Diners Club card was introduced, initially for use at just 28 Manhattan restaurants and nightclubs.

1958 Bank of America introduces a card that eventually becomes the Visa card.

1966 Fourteen US banks form the Interlink card payment processor – this eventually becomes Mastercard

1967 The first card outside the US is introduced – otherwise known as Barclaycard

1972 RBS, Natwest, Lloyds and Midland Bank cobime to issue the Access credit card.

1987 Debit cards become available as the Connect Visa Delta card is issued by Barclays.

1997 Cashback arrives courtesy of A&L

1999 Half of all UK adults hold at least one credit card

2003 Now it’s two credit card accounts per adult.

2004 Chip and Pin is rolled out

2006 Total number of credit cards in circulation drops for first time

2008 There’s a worldwide collapse in the banking system, partly due to the proliferation of toxic personal debt.

2009 As bank base rates fall to the lowest in decades, some credit card companies increase their typical APR % rates.

Source: The Telegraph.

The Telegraph published a list of what they claim is the five most expensive UK credit cards in terms of APR. You should of course always look at what other charges and benefits come with a particular credit card, but the headline APR is obviously important to note – especially if you do not clear the account balance after each statement. Annual fees should also be noted.

Here are the top five most expensive credit cards:

• Virgin Money Atlantic Black Amex: 37 %APR, £115 annual fee
• Vanquis Bank Visa: 39% APR, £0 annual fee
• Citi Ultima Mastercard: 41% APR, £300 annual fee
• Nortern Bank Platinum Mastercard: 42% APR, £200 annual fee (also includes current a/c)
• British Airways Premium Plus: 46% APR, £150 annual fee.

UK credit card holders now face an average interest rate of 17.7% – up from 16.6% a year ago. That’s despite the base rate falling significantly in recent months. Store cards typically attract a much higher rate of interest and in most circumstances do not offer a competitive rate.

As consumers battle with personal debt, credit card providers have agreed to not increase the interest rate on a card for at least a year after the customer signs up for it. This agreement has come about after the Government applied pressure to the credit card providers to agree to a new code of conduct.

As the card providers look to boost or at least retain their revenues we should all expect them to levy fees for late payments, non-payments, statement requestes, etc. It is also widely rumoured that credit card providers may soon start charging annual fees. It is often suggested that the card providers worst (least profitable) customers are those that pay off their card balance in full each month and do not therefore pay any interest.

As new rules are introduced to let credit card companies share customer data, so called card tarts could be denied cheap credit.

The entirely legitimate process of moving credit card debts around to benefit from low, promotional interest rates gave practising consumers the nickname of card tarts. It was a mechanism I successfully used myself and was partly the inspiration behind our first finance website. I managed my accounts carefully and responsibly and saved myself hundreds of pounds as a result.

From this week the five largest credit card providers have agreed to share more details about each others customers. They are:

• Barclaycard
• Capital One
• GE Money
• HBOS
• MBNA

Despite the recent interest rate cut by the Bank of England, the average rate of interest on credit cards is on the rise.

Research group Defaqto has studied the rates of some 240 credit cards and reports that since May the annual percentage rate (APR) has risen from 17.2% to 17.6%. Certain cards have seen bigger increases; a NatWest card rate has increased from 13.9% to 16.9% – thought that is still lower than the average.

I don’t have any figures for rates in store cards but bare in mind that such cards typically attract higher rates of interest. You might find that unless you clear the balance in full each month on a store card, the rate of interest outweighs any first purchase discount that you’re offered.

Forget the gold, platinum or exclusive black credit card even – the new card to have is the diamond card.

Oil and gas reserves have made many industrialists in Kazakhstan very wealthy – and a new credit card named Diamond lets them show it.

Issued as a Mastercard by Kazkommertsbank the Diamond card has a 0.02 carat gem in it’s centre. The bank plans to issue around 1,000 of the cards at the rate of 30/month. The allocated credit limit will be $50,000 – that’s about $20,000 higher than upper credit limits on some platinum Mastercards. It’s not something new though as Dubai residents had a similar card last year.

Kazakhstan is now home to a new class of super-rich due to it’s plentiful reserves of oil and minerals. To many this contradicts their view of a country made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional character Borat.