When we're young and don't any have credit, it becomes one of the first things we try to establish as adults.
We get excited when that first credit card comes in the mail, and we're able to go buy that elusive and expensive trinket we've been wanting for so long.
It might be a stereo, cell phone, TV, or even jewelry.
Not long after we've started to establish credit and pay our bills on time, our credit report starts to draw the attention of credit card companies wanting us to carry their card.
Soon, we start getting credit solicitations in the mail pretty regularly.
Now we start to feel powerful and important - seemingly every credit card company wants us to have their card to use whenever we get the spending urge.
After a while, we have a sizable collection of credit cards with brand names like Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and maybe even some cards that are issued by our favorite retailers like Sears, Home Depot, Circuit City and others.
As consumers, it seems natural to use someone else's money to purchase those things that we want and/or need, and then want to pay it back later.
Another issue is that you may want to accept any credit offered to you in your quest to establish a lengthy credit profile - even though you don't need to use it right away.
Now comes the tough part.
If you have too much available credit, you may be hurting your credit score, causing you to be offered higher interest rates for secured credit loans such as automobile and home loans.
The theory behind this is that you may use all of your open and unspent credit lines, and then have monthly payment obligations that are too high to keep up, and then default on some or all of the due payments.
This makes you a higher credit risk in the eyes of the credit companies.
The best advice is to use your credit wisely, and not to have too much credit that you appear to be an adverse credit risk to the credit companies.