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.
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