Would you credit it?

Apparently Visa can predict if you're likely to divorce, with 90 per cent accuracy (!), as early as two years before it happens - and all from what you put on your credit card. Heck.

Well I guess if a new set of saucepans (to replace the ones you threw at him), sharp knives, a single bed, locksmith's bill, bumper sized packs of giant chocolate buttons, boxed set of Gray's Anatomy DVDs and a crate of pink bubbly suddenly pop up on the bill, they might very well get an idea that all may not be rosy.....

Tracking people through their credit card spending is big business and companies use the info for risk management and to build up a picture of us all and whether we're going to be able to pay our bills or not.

I just love this - people who buy premier bird food, carbon monoxide detectors and felt pads for the bottom of their chair legs are deemed to be a safe bet. No sh** Sherlock, I could have told them that and also that they sport a comb-over, beige cardie (probably with big brown buttons and leather pads on the elbows), treat themselves to a piece of Battenburg cake on Sunday afternoon and like a bit of train spotting, unless it's raining of course.

Buy a bit of chrome for your car and, according to the credit card snoops, you're extremely likely to default on a payment. I rather like the idea that my credit card company could well be having 50 fits as I not only went for a chrome boot handle on my Mini but plastered the inside with it too. Ha, that should have them well and truly worried!

Some of the stats are just plain weird though. Apparently if you prefer an aisle seat on a plane you're highly likely to clear your credit card balance every month. How on earth do they work that out from where you sit on a plane? I always choose an aisle seat but purely because it means I don't have to squeeze past anyone else to get to the loo.

I've wondered how our lives would look to another person viewed solely through a credit card bill and have long had the idea for a book based on a bored credit card office worker who becomes obsessed with one customer and follows her life through her credit card transactions.

Anyway, it got me thinking about what my credit card bill and my recent transactions would say about me.

One thing would be pretty obvious, I'm somewhat prone to changing my mind and probably just that little bit deluded. The lengthy 'Boden order, Boden refund' entries would be a dead give-away that I still haven't cottoned on that the skinny, beanpole in the catalogue may look tremendous in the tartan shift dress but it's just not going to work on a 5ft 3in, curvy girl.

This last month's purchases tell their own story - that I've absolutely no sense of direction and am fed up with getting lost in never ending country lanes (sat nav); I like a bit of travel (Eurostar to Paris and hotel, flight to Ireland); have a friend who's about to have twins (baby outfits and a spa treatment, well she'll need it!), love a fire (logs); have a son who seems incapable of going out on his bike without riding over a rusty nail (bike repair shop, yet again); don't want to go grey just yet (hair salon); can't be without a book (Kindle downloads); am soon to part company with my wisdom teeth (dentist). 

So, what would yours say about you?