Maybe I’ll Pay My Credit Card Off In Full

And then get a new one.

It has recently come to my attention that the credit card I’ve had for years is very close to being paid off. There’s about $300 left on it — a sum that is less intimidating and much more manageable than the $855 balance I carried when I finally started answering the phone calls from Capital One. If I treat the credit card debt like my taxes and just pay the thing off before I’ve really woken up, I’ll be free.

Maybe it’s time for me to get another credit card?

I Guess I Should Get A Credit Card Again

Clearly, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but if I could just throw $300 at the problem — and to be clear, right now I could — and be done with it, I should consider building credit. I could put all my recurring charges on my credit card, as some wily members of Team Billfold suggested, paying that off every month like I would anyway. I could consult the credit card tactics of other more responsible human beings in my life and compile a strategy that works for me, based on their findings. I could finally get a card that would earn me the mysterious “points” I am so enamored with, to see what all the fuss is about.

Right now, I have enough money to cover my life for three or four months should an emergency arise. I don’t use this money very often, but it is there. If there were to be an actual emergency, I would use this money because it is tangible, immediate, and there. Buying something over, say, $50 on my hypothetical credit card would feel like a lie only because if I wanted that thing that cost over $50, why wouldn’t I just buy it with my regular money, instead?

I could just get one with a very small limit and put, like, one thing a month on it for under a set amount of money, and pay that thing off in full every month, just to see if I can. I’d like to think that I’ve learned from my mistakes. The only way I’ll know is if I try, right?

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