I hate credit cards!

Alright you will find out real quick that I hate credit cards. I was 17 when my mom said I could get a credit card. Use it only for emergenices. Yeah right mom! I did at first, gas, a promise ring for my high school sweetheart. Next thing I know I am living in Phoenix with a Chase visa and a Dillards card. The problem was that I had no money to pay the $2,000 Chase card and the $400 Dillards card. Credit screwed at only 19 years of age.

After getting many threating phone calls from a collection agency I set up a payment plan with them for $100 a month. After I paid it off I kept getting more and more offers. High interest cards wanted me! Wow that is great I can still get a credit card at 25% interest. Sign me up.

So three years later I went to college and thank god for the credit card. I needed shirts, beer and who knows what else. So I graduate three years later and had $5,000 + in credit card debt and $25,000 in student loan debt. My first job paid me $24,000 a year. This does not add up.

What am I supposed to do?? Well keep charging I guess, since I am already broke. I kept doing this for a little while longer until I heard a man on the radio say that debt is dumb. So I listened and listened until I understood what he was saying. He said you don't need credit cards and why would you pay 25% interest on a pair of shoes? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense does it??

I paid off my credit cards and close all of my accounts over a year ago. I will never again use a personal credit card. I will use cash and only cash. If I don't have the cash, do I really need it??