The Importance of Credit Card Responsibility

I will never forget my first credit card. It was a white Capital One card with Asian writing, I don’t even know what it said, I just thought the card was beautiful. I was honestly more excited about the card itself than I was about the limit on the card or how the card would affect my credit future.

I made note of my due date but what I didn’t make note of was the time the payment was due. Sometimes things just need to be paid on that day and you’re good but a lot of credit cards need to be paid by a certain time and in my case, that time was 1 PM. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay my card until 1:28 PM, so it should come as no surprise that I received a late fee and loss points on my newly acquired credit score.

In a fit of anger, and stupidity, that I couldn’t talk the customer service agent into removing the late fee from my account … I had paid my bill on the correct date after all … I angrily canceled my card. Little did I realize at the time that I had mistake number two because that cancellation also resulted in loss points to my newly acquired credit score. I had effectively taken my score from a shiny brand new score to a poor rating in a matter of two days.

Often times people get cards when they’re younger and they’re not taught how to use those cards. I was one of those people, with my mother simply telling me to avoid them and pay in cash. Let me tell you, this is NOT the way to go. At some point in time, you will need a credit card, and it would behoove you to learn all you can about managing that card to keep from making mistakes I have.

Like the Spiderman saying “with great power comes great responsibility”, “with a credit card that has any type of limit comes great responsibility of making sure to pay your bills on time”. Honestly, it comes with a great responsibility of making sure you even have the money to begin with in order to pay your bills on time. Credit cards should not be looked at as “free money“ to tide you over until the next paycheck, they should be looked at as something to enhance your credit profile.

While I did have the money, I didn’t pay the bill on time. Because payment history has the highest bearing on your credit score, it’s vital to practice credit card responsibility. I didn’t learn credit card responsibility until my 30s. If I’m being honest, I didn’t learn money management until my 30s either. Capital One was my very first card and it’s actually the company I turned to when seeking a secured card to enhance my credit portfolio and raise my credit score. Over the next several months, I’m going to share my financial journey and I hope it helps someone along in theirs.