Be wary of plastic power

I got my first one when I still had meal points. Only weeks after arrival on campus, I stupidly and irreversibly filled out one of those easy applications. The only question I stumbled on was mother's maiden name, as I generously listed my yearly income (figuring in parent's generosity above all else.)\nMine is red with a photo of the Sample Gates. Issued by MBNA of America, one of the largest credit issuers, according to the Wall Street Journal. This piece of plastic sin has caused countless fights with parents and harassing phone calls from creditors at all hours of the early morning.\nInitially, the limit was $1,000 and with late night pizza and random clothes that I am sure I no longer possess, let alone wear, soon that $1,000 turned into a load of minimum payments and 19.99 annual percentage rate.\nLike thousands of college students every year who apply for plastic that range from the leopard print Capital One cards to the Discover, gasp, Platinums, I fell victim to the game of credit where to a young newly emancipated freshman, the money just doesn't seem real.\nIt seemed so easy to jump into the world of credit that is a $1.3 trillion industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. Little did I know how quickly these powerhouse creditors could have unassuming freshman girls by the throat.\nForgetting that I would eventually have to pay all of the money back and yes, I could get bad credit, I dove into a game of high stakes where every time I seemed to spend money and pay any of it back, the limit was stretched until I was sitting on thousands of dollars of credit and tons of things I bought because I could, not because I needed them.\n This is why the game of credit is so dangerous. There often aren't limits, at least realistic ones, and spring break in Aruba seems so much easier if you can open a new American Express account to cover it all. \nThe bar scene and the ease of coughing up plastic when intoxicated only heighten this sense that money is limitless, when in actuality the spending forces some students to have to drop out of college to repay the financial doom they now dwell in.\nThree years and probably more than 500 dollars in interest later, I am trying to salvage the credit I have left. The immature days of reckless spending, for the most part, behind me I have been forced to cut up all of the four credit cards I at one time possessed. Although I only ever used one of them, the power to spend was there, and it is too tempting to want to pull them out in desperate situations or when desire for a particular thing arises.\nAll of you who haven't played the game of credit, I applaud you. But those of you sitting there filling out one of the thousands of easy applications that stay posted in the psych classroom, beware. Visa, MasterCard, Discover…. they just want your business. You are an easy target for tons of interest and even possible lawsuits.\nChances are, what you want to buy isn't even worth it. The bad credit, that can ruin chances of owning a home or leasing a car for eight years after it is cleared is a horrifying game that I guarantee you don't want to play.