One million customers signed up for the very first credit card introduced by Barclaycard in 1966, and now 40 years later more than ten times that amount are cardholders.

UK payment association Apacs (Association for Payment Clearing services) claims there are almost 32 million credit cards in the country today – 11.2 million provided by Barclaycard – and each person owns on average 2.4 cards.

"Cards are now the British consumer's first choice in how they pay, and access to credit is an important factor in the UK economy, attracting investment into the UK from companies worldwide and helping to balance out the peaks and troughs in the UK economy," said Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclaycard.

Despite cash remaining the dominate method of payment with 64 per cent of transactions made with notes and coins, a staggering £124 million was spent on credit cards in 2005.

Apacs predicts that by 2015 debit card use will have doubled and credit card use will be up by a third.