Many people use their credit cards as a convenient way of deferring payments from one month to the next, however if you always pay your credit card bill in full every month you can use your credit card as a small but effortless source of additional income.

Every time you spend on your Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit card the issuer e.g. Barclaycard, MBNA, Virgin etc. earn a small percentage of the money you spend - known as interchange. To encourage you to take out and use their own cards credit card issuers will often give you the customer this in the form of cash back, points or air miles.

American Express credit cards pay the issuer three times more interchange than Visa or MasterCard and so these incentives are usually most generous on American Express cards.

If you always pay your bill in full you should consider an American Express credit card such as the American Express Platinum Money Back which pays 5% cash back in the first three months and 1.5% thereafter, the American Express Nectar card which adds points to your Nectar account or the American Express British Airways Card which allows you take free flights with British Airways.

If you don’t pay in full every month the cost of interest charges will quickly erode your gains from whatever credit card rewards program you are on however if you do, you can enjoy spending your rewards courtesy of American Express!