I’m not much of a credit card user.  It’s part of how I generally remain impervious to credit card debt, because I sparsely use them.  That being said, I still have a few lines of credit here and there and one actual credit card for general use.  And for the last 13 years, it’s been a Capital One credit card, because they were the smart company that capitalized on the recent high school graduates and gave them all offers for (most of) their first credit cards.

Naturally, being the financially reckless teenager I was back then, I took them up on it, and I got my very first credit card with a fairly decent interest rate, and a paltry $200 limit.  A year later, it was without warning bumped up to a $500 limit, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time then, because I in a relationship and wanted to have the financial flexibility to indulge for two.  Eventually my limit was bumped to $2,000, and that’s where it’s remained since.

I maxed it out and paid it off, and since then it’s been nothing more than a rainy day fallback, and a resource to secure hotel rooms and car rentals.  Every time I use it, I pay it off in full, and I haven’t paid interest on anything with it in about five years.  Needless to say, I’m somewhat of a model of intelligent credit card use, if I say so myself.

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