After waiting for a long time to either persuade your parents or to take the big step yourself, you finally have your first credit card. It’s a great feeling, but it’s also a huge responsibility. Too many people abuse this privilege and wind up paying the price through debt for many years to come. Don’t make the same mistakes they did.

When you’re a new credit card user, you have the opportunity to establish a good credit score from the outset and eventually a history that reflects well on you. To maintain that, the first thing you need to do is always make your payments on time, if not before they’re due. Otherwise the missed balances will add up to more than you can handle.

You might be tempted to sign up for several different cards, but don’t get ahead of yourself. Chances are you’ll lose track of the separate accounts. Remember, more cards mean more bills. One thing you can do to stay on top of things, though, is set up automatic payments – though you should have records of everything besides.

The same misconception is made about a high credit limit. You think you’ll be able to buy anything, and that’s just the problem because you can afford to buy anything. Keep the limit at a point that it will allow for everything you might want to spend, but will also force you to limit use to emergencies only except in very special circumstances.

Even if you do everything right, there are plenty of other people you won’t. Because of this, you can’t ever lend your card to anyone, even if they’re a very good friend. It’s just too big a risk to take with your money. You should know where your card is at all times and not let it out of your sight when it isn’t in your wallet or your hands.

Also, keep your eye on what the card company and others try to get you to do. Things like cash advances are made to sound as appealing as possible, without mentioning all the negative effects. In this case, those come in the form of high interest rates. You’ll probably end up spending more than what you were taking out in the first place.

You grow up quickly when you have a credit card. If you don’t, you’ll make a lot of decisions you’ll regret for the rest of your life. However, a good credit history is one of the best things you can create for yourself. Keep looking for as much information as you can on how to use your credit card correctly now and for the rest of your life.