The first credit cards were invented by the Diners Club in the 1950s and consisted merely of paper with a name printed on them. If you wish to be pedantic, you could argue that these credit cards just paid for food: perhaps then the very first genuine credit card was delivered by American Express soon after.

It’s amazing how far we have come and how much has changed when you compare our microchipped, plastic cards to those easily forged paper slips of the past. Looking at photographs of them, you will be amazed by how trusting a society we were at one stage.

It’s hard to believe that credit cards have a history, especially one that’s so recent. They are so much a part of our society today that we wouldn’t know what to do without them.