Diana Clement: How to choose the most fantastic plastic

If the rush to the Temple of Almighty Spending - as Sylvia Park was described by one reader this week - is anything to go by, people must be wearing their credit cards out faster than Sarah Ulmer's bike tyres.

These days our little plastic friends come in multiple flavours designed to cater for different spending patterns and the website cannex.co.nz has launched a star-rating system designed to help users choose the most fantastic plastic for their circumstances.

Cannex NZ managing director Steven Anderson said the star ratings system split credit cards into four categories - according to your spending classification - and then offered a rating on cards in that sector.

The categories cover "transactors", who either always pay their bills on time or nearly always do, and "revolvers" - people who use credit cards as revolving loans to pay impulse purchases or those who are habitually in debt.

Anderson said at the top end, cards such as the Amex Platinum Member Rewards Card and the Westpac Titanium MasterCard competed for users by providing additional services such as better reward programmes and concierge services.

However, habitual spenders were better off looking at cards that would reduce their interest bill.

Cannex says the average interest rate on credit card debt in Australia is 15.99 per cent, compared with 18 per cent here.

Cards that scored highly in these areas were the BankDirect Visa Classic Low Interest card and the Westpac Low Interest Master Card.