Find Your Best Student Credit Cards
It is normal when college students getting a credit card. 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.
Everyone knows that 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.
Students have an option of managing their account online which
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. Let's 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.