A Guide to Finding the Best Student Credit Cards
Student credit cards annually bombard freshman as they enter college.
It has become a fall ritual. Parents should be vigilant in discussing
the importance and responsibilities that go along with having a credit
card before the students ever leave home. Don't get me wrong, I think
it's a great idea that students have their own credit card when they go
away to school, but it is extremely important that they get the right
card and use it wisely.
The best student credit cards are the ones that have low spending
limits. A high limit credit card given to a college student could be a
recipe for disaster. It should be made clear to the students that their
credit card is for emergency use only, unless they want to get a job
and pay for any of the charges that are made on it. That sounds like a
good idea, but probably isn't very realistic.
When finding the best student credit cards, it is imperative to seek
out the lowest interest rates that you can find. This is really
obvious, but nonetheless needs to be stated. Many credit card companies
will offer 0% teaser rates for the first six months. Beware of these
rates because they're often followed by exorbitantly high interest
rates and then you are stuck. It is most certainly not uncommon for
students to carry balances for more than six months, so I suggest that
you avoid this option.
Just about all student credit cards offer some type of incentives such
as rewards points or cash back incentives. This is done for obvious
reasons. The most common of which is to entice the cardholder into
using it more often. Overall it is a pretty good deal to receive
rewards for credit card charges as long as you bear in mind that this
is not free money. Whether you realize it or not, you have already paid
for those points.
Managing your account online is a great feature for students. For
starters, just about every student has access to the Internet and can
easily access their credit card statements. The second great reason for
this is that the parents can also monitor the activity on the card even
if they are thousands of miles away. This kind of accountability for
impressionable young students is an excellent way to keep them from
getting themselves into trouble. It also keeps the parents from getting
stuck paying their kids huge credit card bills.
For a student credit card it is important that they have a lost or
stolen card feature that guarantees protection against unauthorized
activity. Lets face it, sometimes kids are not as responsible as we
might like them to be. Having this protection goes a long way in easing
the parent's mind when they hand their student a credit card.