Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
OP, just be very careful.
I got my first credit card at 19 (in college), while not working. I got several more cards in college, and graduated with ~$12,000 in credit card debt. Over the following 5 years I charged myself up to about ~$24,000 total. At my peak I had over 15 active credit accounts, and carried high balances on 4 or so at any given time. I was paying an avg. of probably 13-15% interest.
Over the past 7 years, I've paid off most of that debt. I'll be debt free (other than my mortgage) in about 18 months.
My advice: Get 2 credit cards. Only two. No more, no less. One MasterCard, one Visa. Use them both every month, pay them both off every month. NEVER carry a balance. If you find good deal on a third card, pick it up but then cancel one of the older ones so you only have two active at a time.
After college, you can look into getting more cards, financing a vehicle, eventually buying a house, etc. But for now - two cards.
Canceling a card every time a new one comes along is a bad idea for your credit score. It keeps you age of credit down (not only are you lowering the average age when you get the new card, but it extra negative since you are closing another account that you have an established history with), and will likely keep your credit card utilization higher than it needs to be. It's a better idea to throw the old card in your desk and forget it or charge something to it once a year to try to show you are still using it (so the company doesn't cancel your card). Can also cut it in half and tossing it in a desk if needed to avoid temptation.