[79CamaroDiva]

When I got my first (and only) credit card 6 years ago, my mom gave me some great advice: Pay it off every month, so that you don't pay the company for the privilege of you having their card, and never put anything on it that you won't still have when you pay the bill (ie. gas, groceries, etc etc). I followed that for a long time, and then I started getting a little spend happy with it, and every month it seems like there's still $1500 on it, regardless of how much I pay off.

Stop worrying about what other people think, and save your money until you have enough to cover whatever you want. If you start impulse buying, not only will you hurt your credit, but by the time you either a) start making payments on that no interest loan, or b) pay it off, there will be SOMETHING newer and better that you say "ah sh** thats so much better than what I have now."

One more note, if you start building good credit now, it WILL pay off in the future, and bad credit will absolutely hurt you. Credit is used as a judgement for a lot of things now, not just loan applications and credit cards. My car insurance is probably lower for 3 vehicles (1 with full coverage) than most peoples' liability insurance on 1, simply because of my credit.

Its just something to think about.. Good credit can ONLY help you in the future, and if you start messing it up now, it WILL hurt your chances at loans, leases on apartments, mortgages on a house, and even jobs in the future, since many companies use credit score as a responsibility indication.