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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Thanks for the feedback. I actually have the money to pay to off in my savings so I will be using that. This wasn't an impulse by .. I thought about my decision while waiting in line. Really though lesson learned.[/quote]

NP here.  OP, the lesson learned here is that when you borrow money for any reason, you need to stop, evaluate how much money that is, and where you are going to get the money to pay it off.  Plus, you need to have a plan to pay it off.  You also need to read the conditions of loan before you take the loan.  Many loans have very different little "gotchas" in teh fine print including some that have a penalty for paying off the debt early (because they want to earn some interest on your loan).  BEFORE you bought the Mac, you should have stopped, thought about how much money it was, and broken it down into how much you needed to pay each month for the 12 months that you had an interest free loan.  Or set aside the money to pay it off in the 12th month.  What happened is that you had the money in savings, but did not plan to pay it off and you were hit with the penalty for failing to pay the loan.

I also agree that it would be better to keep the card in a secure place and not cancel it.  Canceling it will be a big blow to your rather short credit history and will be much more significant than it would be for someone with a long credit history.  There are several suggested solutions for how to keep yourself from using the card.  Some people put it in a plastic bag in the freezer, some put it in a sealed envelope in the back of a desk drawer, some even put it in a bank in a safe deposit box.  Somewhere you have to seriously consider whether it is worth the risk to take it out and use.  If you feel that you've learned a lesson and have better impulse control you can pick someplace more easily accessible (e.g. the envelope in the back of the desk drawer).  If you feel that you might still be tempted to use this in anything other than an emergency, then put it someplace less accessible (the bank deposit box or I've seen some kids use someplace in their parents home when it is several hours drive away).  Also, for future use, try not to use a credit card for anything that you cannot pay off in the same month, or in emergency conditions, pay off in a short amount of time.  When you have to carry a balance, make a plan for how to pay it off, how long you want to hold the debt and pay the interest and make sure you know what the monthly payment will be and where that money will come from (e.g. it will take 10% of my wages for the next 4 months)[/quote]

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