I heartily agree with you. I bought my first real computer with a student loan in 1993, outgrew it, and the next year I started a company to secure a loan for a

I heartily agree with you. I bought my first real computer with a student loan in 1993, outgrew it, and the next year I started a company to secure a loan for a $5700 computer. This was way more than I could afford, and in fact I often couldn't make the payment so I damaged my credit record and it seemed to my responsible friends that I was a financially incomptent retard. But, three years later, I shipped my first real product, having done all the learning and coding on that very same machine, and made enough money to recover all that several times over. The knowledge I gained during those years led to a programming career that continues to the present. Early in life, I think it makes sense to not pay down debt, or take on even more debt, in order to buy something is going to be a force-multiplier for you. Obviously, without additional effort, there is not much you can do with $3000 that is likely to have a higher return than paying off the card. But, depending on your own interests and motivation, there are a lot of things that--when combined with your own efforts--will allow you to upgrade your own value. So figure out what those things are, and whether any of them can be had for $3000.