Student Credit Cards, Bad Or Good?
When it comes to students and credit (student credit cards), parents have nightmares about this particular topic. The reasoning behind the nightmares is because this topic has gotten much bad press with all the many things that can and often do go bad with their child’s credit history. However, as I know from personal experience this is a topic that does need each college student to take much more seriously. Parents of college students need to realize that there are many more benefits for a student establishing a good credit history while still in college rather than graduating with no credit history at all.
I know that many college students are almost forced by a student credit card company to get a credit card upon entry into a college or university. Nevertheless, if a college student is capable of responsibly handling and learning how to manage a credit balance, they will be able to obtain a valuable lesson on life (that will need to be learned eventually) by having good credit. Just a sampling of many benefits of having good credit is that your application for an apartment will more than likely get approved, you will be able to obtain a discount on car insurance, as well as have the ability to finance some major purchases like that brand new laptop, mobile phones, or a new car that you might want to get after just a few years of good credit management. College students need to understand the value of credit. One great definition of credit is having the privileged ability to pay for a good or service in the future while still obtaining the good or service during the present.
Some ways to help college student’s work on having good credit is to:
• Giving yourself a monthly allowance that you will be able to pay off within that billing period (generally this would be about 20% of one’s budget).
• Only use your student credit card for small purchases when you first receive a credit card (reason would be that small purchases can be paid off each month).
• Pay monthly student credit card bill by the due date (if you do not you will be slammed with late fees and most cards carry other fees after two late payments).
• Call your student credit card company and see if they do report to credit bureaus at least twice a year so that you will get the most recent credit score rating and benefit.
• If you have a student credit card, you just might quality for discounts on airline tickets, car rentals, hotel expenses, and many other like discounts and rewards.
As you can see, having a student credit card will come with many perks and rewards for you. However, using it without thought will hurt you. There is bad and good with all choices we have to make in life. The sooner you learn that, the better off you will be. In addition, the sooner you learn your good choices determine the bad and good out comes the more better choices you will make.
Student credit cards.com @ August 14, 2008