What I should have known about credit cards 10 years ago

I got my first credit card all too easily, when I was a junior in college. I never even applied for one, but there were lots of credit card offers and I was given a pre-approved application and got the card within a few days itself. While I knew I had to be careful about charging money on the card, it was just so easy to get pulled into buying things on sale and think about paying later on. Credit cards are something that we have to have but have to be cautious about. Credit cards are essential in today's world; you can't even rent a car without a credit card, so the only way to handle credit cards smartly is to have an agenda about them, to pay charged amounts as soon as possible, before even the interest is charged. I wish I had been able to read basic credit guidelines such as these before I got into the credit card cycle. It's also a good idea to understand what balance transfers are all about, so you can take advantage of better interest rates elsewhere.