I still remember the day. I was roaming around campus trying to learn more about where I would be living for the next 4 years. As I walked through the center of campus, I noticed all of these students gathered around, but I couldn’t see what they were looking at. With curiosity getting the best of me, I decided to find out what was going on. Students were gathered around getting free gifts, but only after they signed up for a credit card.

Being a teenager with nothing to lose and everything to gain, I decided to sign up in order to receive the free gift, a sweet branded t-shirt. I didn’t care about the credit card, because I had no desire to use it. Yep, I remember that day. It was the day that I got my first credit card. That day changed my life and ended up costing me dearly.

The Start of My Journey.

I went a whole year without using that credit card. I put it in my wallet, but never pulled it out. I didn’t have anything that I wanted and really never understood the idea of credit. I knew my parents used credit cards, but I never paid attention to how they dealt with it. I guess I should have paid better attention.

My first taste of credit came when I needed some books for class. At my college, we were lucky to have a textbook rental system, so we didn’t have to pay crazy prices for books. That being said, we did have to purchase supplemental books depending on the class requirements. I was a Sophomore and needed quite a few for my business classes. I didn’t have the funds in my checking account, so out came the plastic. I put the whole purchase on the card and went throughout my day.

The first charge on my credit card was for $350 and that was on a card that only had a $800 limit. Though I charged the $350, I realized that the minimum payments were going to come and bite me.

Minimum Payments are Bad.

We have all heard about how paying the minimum payment is just a bad idea. You won’t get anywhere and it will take years to pay off your balance. I wish I would have known that before. I only saw the little amount that I needed to pay. It was easy. Just give them $20 a month and they would allow you to continue the use of the card. Sweet!

It didn’t take long before I had maxed out my first credit card and I decided to move on to another. I figured that I have one and I could probably get another one with a bigger limit. I was right. My next card had a limit of $2,000. This could come in handy for a low paid college student.

As I continued to pay the minimum on my first credit card, I started racking up charged on my second. Fast food purchases, movie rentals, gas, entertainment, travel, and anything else I could swipe that card for. I was in bad shape, but I didn’t realize it. It didn’t take long to max out my second credit card. Oops! The second card allowed me to just pay $30 a month, so in total I was only paying $50 a month for the use of credit.

Why Not Start a Business?

I don’t know what you would do if you were in credit card debt, but you probably wouldn’t do what I did. Instead of working more hours at my part time job, I decided to start a business. Yep, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, so why not?

I started my online electronics business when I was a Senior in college. I had already been through quite a few business and marketing classes and had a little passion for HTML. Since I wanted to start a legitimate business, I needed cash flow. Where else would I get that from?

Instead of trying to find a loan or asking my parents, I just applied for a few more credit cards. I think at this time, I had 6 credit cards in my name. I was now using my credit cards to fund my business. If you take one piece of advice from this post, please DO NOT fund your business with credit cards. There is no good that can come from it.

I ran my business for 4 years before I decided to shut it down. It was profitable, but I was in a lot of debt and the business was affecting my relationships. It just wasn’t worth it to me, but I didn’t have enough time to pay off all of my credit card debt.

Changing My Mentality and Crushing Debt!

After shutting down my business, it was time to get serious about my credit card debt. I had realized that it would take about 30 years to pay off my debt if I continued down my same path. There was no good that could have come from it. I needed a change and I needed it quickly.

I decided then and there that I needed to stop being the victim of my own stupidity and started to learn. I looked deeply into my finances and my purchase behavior. I created a rough budget in order to get my spending on track and put it to work. I stopped eating out, I brought my lunch to work everyday, I learned how to service my car, I cut my cable, and many other things. I didn’t want to pay off debt my whole life.

I saved and I paid off debt each and every month for four years. After it was all said and done, I had racked up over $50,000 worth of credit card debt. It took me four long years to pay it all back off, using the debt avalanche method. It was a great learning experience for me and now I feel confident in my ability to grow my net worth. Yes, I made mistakes, but what person doesn’t? In the end, that lonely free gift from the credit card company cost me over $50,000. I guess they could have given me a free boat and they would have still ended up on top.

Author Bio: Grayson is the owner of Debt Roundup, a personal finance blog dedicated to talking about and working off debt. I was an avid consumer that built up a lot of credit card debt, but then learned the error of his ways. Saving, investing, and making more money are now his passions. You can follow him on Twitter or Google +.