Despite the rising criticism about college student credit cards, now is a good time to get your first credit card and start building a positive credit history. As long as you will be able to pay off the student credit card each month. A graduate with thousands of dollars of debt is simply a bad idea, especially when you are also going to begin paying off student loans and still try to make ends meet on an entry level salary.
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What you have to do is just be wise about any choices you make. If you plan to pay your college student credit card off every month the interest rate is not as important as it typically would be. However, what if for some reason you can not pay it off every month. Then the interest rate will make a huge difference. You will still need to look at all the qualities and benefits of a student credit card no matter what you think you may be able to do, emergencies come up and change plans all the time.
You need to compare interest rates, credit limit, payment terms, and any additional perks or benefits they will be offering you. Some benefits will be 0% interest rate for 6 months, 5% cash back on certain purchases, frequent flyer miles. The list will go on and on. Compare them and be smart about your final choices.
Once you have obtained the college student credit card, know how to use it. Yes, you just go purchase something by swiping your card. Well, yes you do, but what kind of purchases should you be making on this card. Pizza, CD’s, Coffee? These are all things you can live without. You need to treat your new college student credit card like it is an emergency tool. Your car breaks down, now you have a way to get it fixed. If you have already charged that card up, what good is it to you? You also want to build a positive credit history. If you are charging to the limit every month it is not benefiting you as far as building a credit history. You are showing them you have this much credit and you have to use it every month to make it. The credit card companies want to see you have some credit left over every month. This will help to build a positive credit history for you.
A student credit card can be a great tool for you or it could be a tool that causes much debt and grief for you. It is up to you how it will affect you. Listen to your parents advice and do your research and you will be fine. You are a young adult, use your maturity to benefit you not only for today, but help you become more financial independent in the future. You want to graduate with as little debt as possible so you can start to make those college student loans payments with out hurting your financial situation.
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