Morgan Hamilton
College freshmen are bombarded with offers for college credit
cards. They get all sorts of junk mail and e-mails saying
enticing things like, "pre-approved for college credit cards."
Few students can resist these college credit cards marketing
gimmicks.
Not that it's bad for students to have and use college credit
cards. Parents just have to be aware that this college credit
cards craze will happen at the start of each year. Rather than
fighting a battle they really can't win, mom and dad should be
sitting down with their college freshman son or daughter and
explaining the ins and outs of college credit cards - the
jargon, the responsibilities, the ramifications to their credit
if they go overboard on college credit cards purchases they fail
to pay on time.
The best student choices in college credit cards are those that
start the college freshman out with a modest spending limit.
Parents are probably going to be the ones paying the balance,
anyway, for college freshmen at least, who don't typically have
jobs while they're in their first college year.
While it's almost a given that you would want to choose a
college credit card with a low APR (annual percentage rate) this
isn't necessarily a bargain, as opposed to those whose APR is a
little higher. There are other factors. If, for example, the
introductory offer is the low APR and it only lasts for six
months or one year, just what is the APR after that? Much
higher? If that's the case, you might be better off looking at
college credit cards whose APR is a little higher the first year
but at least consistent.
Just about all college credit cards are going to entice the
student with gimmicks such as cash back or points towards
rewards. What this is all about is keeping the student using the
credit card for more and more purchases. College credit cards
can be managed online, and, of course, you're not going to find
many students who don't have consistent and almost continual
Internet access. The days of a student, or other cardholder, not
knowing that their account is in trouble (their balance too
high) until the monthly statement arrives in the mail is a thing
of the past.
The other great advantage of this, too, is that parents can sit
at home, across the street or across the country, and get online
to see just what their college student child is doing with her
or his college credit cards. This keeps the college student out
of trouble and the parent out of debt - well, it helps anyway.
College credit cards almost always have a fraud and theft
prevention feature, which is terrific. Dorms, unfortunately, are
often too close and accessible for comfort when it comes to
protecting student valuables. Seldom is there anything a whole
lot more valuable to the student - and the parent - than the
child's college credit cards. This preventative feature is
imperative. Don't even consider college credit cards that don't
offer it!