Right after I turned 18 (2000) I apped for cards left and right at a golf tournament I was at just to get the little free giveaways (golf balls, polo shirts, towels etc). When they arrived I just threw them away and they were eventually closed for inactivity. A couple years later I got a card to finance an apple computer for college and spent way more than I could afford and got behind on the payments. This scared me off of credit cards for years and I just paid everything in cash. I just recently got back into credit cards and luckily all those cards from years ago were still on my report so it actually helped a little and my delinquencies had fallen off so I have been able to get approved for every card I've applied for but it kills me thinking about all the rewards I've been missing out on in the last 10 years or so. I've been lucky to have a decent income for almost that entire 10 years and it kills me to think about the amount of money I put on my debit card for all those years (probably minimum of 40-50k/year 
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@Anonymous wrote:
Right after I turned 18 (2000) I apped for cards left and right at a golf tournament I was at just to get the little free giveaways (golf balls, polo shirts, towels etc). When they arrived I just threw them away and they were eventually closed for inactivity. A couple years later I got a card to finance an apple computer for college and spent way more than I could afford and got behind on the payments. This scared me off of credit cards for years and I just paid everything in cash. I just recently got back into credit cards and luckily all those cards from years ago were still on my report so it actually helped a little and my delinquencies had fallen off so I have been able to get approved for every card I've applied for but it kills me thinking about all the rewards I've been missing out on in the last 10 years or so. I've been lucky to have a decent income for almost that entire 10 years and it kills me to think about the amount of money I put on my debit card for all those years (probably minimum of 40-50k/year
Ah, the olden days of giving away free pizzas to get irresponsible college kids to app for credit cards!
At least you're back in the game. You did lose out on some rewards, but maybe you wouldn't have been mentally prepared for having credit cards until now, so who knows what mess you might have avoided by building up the discipline of cash and debit. A lot of folks tend to overspend as a matter of habit when their incomes dramatically increase. Now that you have the proper mindset, you can move forward and use credit to your advantage :-)
@Anonymous wrote:
Right after I turned 18 (2000) I apped for cards left and right at a golf tournament I was at just to get the little free giveaways (golf balls, polo shirts, towels etc). When they arrived I just threw them away and they were eventually closed for inactivity. A couple years later I got a card to finance an apple computer for college and spent way more than I could afford and got behind on the payments. This scared me off of credit cards for years and I just paid everything in cash. I just recently got back into credit cards and luckily all those cards from years ago were still on my report so it actually helped a little and my delinquencies had fallen off so I have been able to get approved for every card I've applied for but it kills me thinking about all the rewards I've been missing out on in the last 10 years or so. I've been lucky to have a decent income for almost that entire 10 years and it kills me to think about the amount of money I put on my debit card for all those years (probably minimum of 40-50k/year
Yeah the old 'Closed Due To Inactivity.' Sigh! The positive is that you can now take advantage of card rewards. Thanks for sharing!
I would say my biggest mistake was that I wasted 4 EQ inquiries trying to raise my Chase CSP limit. After the 4th denial I gave up. Or maybe the 3 inquiries I burned trying to get a 2nd US bank card to no avail. Even contacted the president's office who investigated the applications and came back with a denial. Last but not least, PNC with 3 wasted inquiries and no card.
(Formerly known as: Credit is my hobby/TCL objective)