Credit cards have become such an essential part of life that most of us forget how much we pay in interest, fees and lost opportunities.

Heading out to the mall to see if you can pick up some stereo speakers and maybe some cycling equipment on sale? Pay with your credit card and you could easily double or triple the purchase price.

"Most people don’t realize how much they add to the cost of the stuff they buy when they pull out a credit card," Credit cards have become such an essential part of our shopping trips that most of us forget how much it costs to use them in interest, fees and sometimes even in lost opportunities. If you’re carrying revolving debt on your credit cards, read on.

What your debt costs you

The first cost is the interest you must pay to carry the debt on your stereo speakers. You probably know you pay extra to carry credit card debt. But do you know how much?

"If you’re like the average person, you carry $2,000 to $3,000 in credit card debt," "Even if you never buy another thing with your card, you could easily end up paying three to four times more than the original purchase price and taking up to 15 years to pay off the debt."

Are you paying too much?

Take this little test: Sit down and add up all of the interest and fees that you pay each year for credit cards. Look at what you purchased with the credit cards. Then ask yourself this question: "Did I pay too much?" If the answer is yes, it’s time to rethink how you make purchases.

Consider this: If you purchased a pair of water skis for $500 using a credit card that charges 18% interest, you would pay nearly another $50 in interest charges if you repaid those skis in only a year. And that’s assuming that you made no other purchases on your credit card during that period.

Pay more than the minimum each month

One of the biggest mistakes many people make is that they pay only the minimum amount due each month. The lower the monthly payment, the longer it takes to pay - and the more it costs. Most card issuers require monthly payments of just 3% to 5% of the balance. But some offer payments as low as 2%.

Banks can also charge annual fees, monthly fees, and sometimes a fee every time you use a credit card issued through their companies. A recent trend is to charge penalty fees if your payment is late or if you go over your card’s limit. So those stereo speakers that you found on sale for $999 might end up costing you $2,500.

The second cost of carrying debt is less tangible but just as real. If you’re loaded to the gills with debt, you lose many of the best opportunities in life. Some of the obvious ones are the chances to take advantage of those special sales, weekend trips or special vacations.

Risks of too much debt

It’s one of the facts of credit that those who issue it don’t like to give it to the people who need it most.

You might even be turned down for a promotion or a new job because of something negative on your credit report. If that sounds far-fetched, consider that Lawrence B. Lindsey, then a member of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, which sets credit policy, and a man who earns $123,100 a year, was turned down for a credit card by Toys "R" Us. The computer turned down Lindsay because "multiple companies requested your credit report in the past six months."

It’s your choice! You can decide right now that you don’t want to pay three or four times what your dinner cost just for the privilege of using credit and that you don’t want to end up working tomorrow for the things you bought yesterday."

Being debt-free is the most critical factor in giving people the option to create the life they want for themselves.

It’s a very short span of time we have on this planet! It’s a big mistake to live someone else’s life. Part of that is buying the stuff we don’t need and then being forced to work at a job we don’t like to pay for it.