When I was in my early to mid twenties I ran myself 19,000 in to debt with two credit cards. When they went to collections I got rid of all my credit cards and have never opened another one. It's 10 years later, and I'm still paying on that crap. I probably will not open another credit card until it's paid off.

What I've done now instead is open a savings account and keep stashing money into it all time for emergencies. I'm good about not spending that money, but if I wasn't I'd open one at bank that wasn't as easy access to touch the money.