Credit Cards: How to Make Them Work for You

If you are anything like me, you have a love/hate relationship with credit cards. You love being able to buy things without having to pay for them immediately but you hate when the bill comes along. You complain about them to others - the high interest rates, possible identity theft and so on - only to be met by rolling eyes and looks that say "Here we go again..." Yet these cards are gateways to bigger and better things such as being approved for low-interest loans on housing and autos.

To begin, I'd like to give you a little background on my own credit card debt. While I was in college, I mostly had student loans to defray a majority of the living and academic costs. However, due to some bad decision-making on my part as well as past purchases, I had amassed more than $5000 in debt which is a lot, when you consider that in 2004 half of American households held balances that were less than half of my own debt according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. My parents paid it off for me but not without writing up a tab. I have since paid off some of the debt but not much because I still owe them $4700 as well as $20,000 in student loans, all of which I must pay off on my own. I still carry a debt of around $500 on my Discover Card which I can only make the minimum payments of $15 on each month. I would use my debit card more but then I wouldn't be able to make my rent and utilities each month.