Twice? Those had to be separated by 8 years, unless each parent declared personally, I guess. I just got done with mine. I was discharged recently. I thought the official papers would be long and full of legalese, but it was a surprisingly brief single page. Something to the effect of the debtor is entitled to a discharge, and creditors are forbidden from any attempts to collect on past debt.
Credit cards can certainly be misused. Looking from the results back to the past, anyone would conclude that I misused them. I am a lot more humble now, about judging other people who get into this predicament. Because every step of the way, at the time, seemed like I was doing what I had to do (and in fact, not doing it would have meant financial ruin years sooner). It was always meant to be stopgap borrowing, so I could keep my house and the rest of the ball rolling. The idea was that when things went on the upswing again, I could consolidate the debt under a long low-interest instrument, such as a 2nd mortgage (because of course my house was going to be worth more money some years later--how wrong that was too). No goodness returned. Things went from bad to worse. The debt became unmanageable, and that's what bankruptcy is for. In this country, everyone is entitled to a reset once in a long while. It's the reaction to debtor's prison in the old world. I don't blame your parents for doing what they had to do.
Back from that long tangent, you should look into getting a card with a low limit, which you are expected to pay in full every month. That would get you used to handling credit cards, would help establish good credit (if you pay on time), would prevent temptation to overspend, and would give some benefits, like the one I mentioned. Here's another: you cannot be held liable for more than $50 worth of fraud per credit card. That's federal law. If someone steals your card or information and charges thousands of dollars, the most you'll ever pay is $50. CC companies usually waive that too, as a PR move. Compare that with someone draining your bank account, and then you having to prove that it wasn't you who did it, and that you're entitled to have the bank assume the loss.
