I have decided to chronicle my experience with my very first credit card as an alternative to sleeping. The time has come for me to break through the shackles of adolescence and emerge an adult, complete with a new car, a college education, and of course, a credit rating. So I got a card. Along the way different parties offered their advice--don't buy it if you don't have the money, don't wait till the last minute to pay your balance, don't do this, make sure you do that. Yeah, yeah yeah, I got it. All I have to do is swipe and pay at the end of the month. Sounds simple. Or so I thought. I attempted to pay my credit card balance online with my checking account. I transfered money into that account from another one, and before giving the system enough time to post the new balance, I went ahead and paid my credit card. I figured since this is the twenty first century and this is the internet, if I transfer money from one place to another it should appear there spontaneously. NO. After three failed attempts to pay my credit card, I finally got one payment to go through. Then I noticed my statement had shot up. Turns out every time I had paid that credit card and not had enough money in my checking account, they had slapped on a $40 return fee. What a vicious, scum sucking world! Result: Me practically crying to whichever poor soul on the other end of the line who had the misfortune of hearing my sob story of how how I was 19 and this is my first credit card and I didn't know. The guy probably thought I was a dolt but he reversed the charges and now I have learned the hard way folks that just because you did it on the internet does not make it some mystical gravity defying act of God. The end.