<p>What do you think is the best credit card for a young college student to get?</p>
<p>One with a very, very low limit.</p>
<p>I’ve got a cashback credit card with a $1,000 limit. 21% APR but I’ve paid maybe one dollar in interest in the two years I’ve had it. I get 4% back at gas stations (useful for when I refuel my roommate’s car), 3% at the movies (not often), 2% at the supermarket (godsend) and up to 1% on everything else. That last one is tricky since you have to spend a TON of money before it becomes 1%, before that it’s like .10%. I don’t think my bank offers it any more.</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of points cards. Usually the best items cost so many points that you might as well just buy them with money, since you’ll have to spend that much anyway just to get the points. Airline mile cards are good if you fly a lot, same with hotel rewards cards. </p>
<p>I’m glad I got one. I pay it off every month and have built a pretty good credit score with it. If you get one, make sure it’s a low limit and try not to go over 30% credit utilization (in my case, I try to keep it around $300).</p>
<p>I had a secured card with BOA. The annual fee was annoying… I think it was like $45, but that was all I could get just starting out with no credit history. After a year I got a capital one card with a $1500 limit and no annual fee and I havent had any problems with it. This is the only card I use now besides store cards at department stores I frequent.</p>
<p>My first was a Capital One, which I like. I also have a Visa Barclaycard which I have had no problems with. When I was in college I only used the Capital One to put my books on, then had it paid off by the end of each semester. I got the Barclaycard to get a new laptop. Both had one year of interest free payments, so I didn’t pay any interest on the books or laptop. The Capital One has a $40 annual fee, but that may have just been the offer I got; I’m not sure if all of their offers do.</p>
<p>If you are approved for more than you want, in many cases you can request to have your credit limit decreased. Once you trust yourself and the way the company works, having a higher credit limit (but not using it) will help your credit. For example, $300 in itself isn’t bad to have on a credit card. But having $300 on a $500 limit card is not as good as having $300 on a $5000 limit card. Part of your credit score is determined by how much credit people trust you to have (credit limits), but you want to be using less than 30% of your available credit. </p>
<p>Be choosy about what you get. You don’t want to end up closing out the account - part of your credit report is also based on your average length of account history. Closing old or unwanted accounts decreases this, especially when you’re just starting out and don’t have much history to begin with.</p>
<p>I’ve been pretty happy with my American Express Blue card. No annual fee, all of the perks of an AMEX (free extended warranty, replacement service, no foreign transaction fee, great customer service, rental car warranty, etc), and a halfway decent rewards system. I’m planning on getting a second card with better every-day rewards like the one ThisMortalSoil mentioned for the majority of my purchases where I don’t need the extra protection American Express offers (and for the occasional place that doesn’t take it).</p>
<p>If you have a bank or credit union already, they’re likely to give you the best rates. </p>
<p>I have one through cap one. Hate it. $500 limit. I have two through a local bank. One has $500 limit, no cash back… it has points but they’re pretty useless, and the other has a $1500 limit, 1% cash back. The final is through my school’s credit union. $1500 but no cash back. </p>
<p>I need to get one of those cards that has higher cash back on gas because that’s what the majority of my money goes to lol.</p>
<p>I agree with TMS… points suck. If you can, just get cash back. Also, if you’re under 21 with no credit history, it’s going to be difficult to get a card without decent income or a co-signer. Unless it’s at a credit union or small bank. This is because of laws that went into place a few years ago.</p>
<p>All the cool people have Black Cards.</p>
<p>Is there a card still remaining that is assoociated with or offers any sort of college points? Also, having a job means you can pay towards the card as well.</p>
<p>The following is assuming, as the OP states, the individual obtaining the credit card is young and in college and therefore most likely has no credit history.</p>
<p>With the lack of credit history, lack of age, and possibly the lack of a job, most banks with the cards mentioned above will not give you a credit card and if they do it will be an extrememly low limit (which is good for a young person anyway) with a high APR.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to go to a local credit union and apply for one there. You may need a co-signer still, so be prepared to ask family to do that if you want. Again, this credit union will only start you out at $500 or so, but it will most likely be a better APR (usually 0% for the first 12 months anyway) than most commerical or big banks. Don’t worry about rewards programs at a young age - you shouldn’t be using your card that much to be able to gain nearly any rewards. After 1 or 2 years of good credit history with that card, the credit union may automatically increase it to $1,000 limit or you can apply for a higher limit if they don’t. Eventually you can also take the co-signer of that credit line off as well.</p>
<p>I’m not 100% on this, but for some reason I’m thinking that if you pay your balance off in full every month before your billing cycle, then your charge and payment will not hit your credit report and thus you’re still not building your credit history. So, while I’m also of the notion to not charge anything on the card that you know you can pay back by the end of the cycle, in your first year (with that nice 0% APR) you may want to charge a couple things on it - not too expensive, still being able to pay it all off it you had to - and pay the monthly payments on it for a few months so that something actually shows up on your credit report. Some reports show that you only made at least the minimum payment (no matter the amount) and some show the actual amount you paid that month. If I were young, that’s what I would do to take advantage of that 0% APR period while still building a credit history. Eventually you can move on to the commerical cards or other banks and then even other lines of credit when you need them, like an auto loan.</p>
<p>It should be a crawl, walk, run experience. I applied for my first credit card when I was 18 at my credit union that I had been a member of since my 11th birthday (started as a “kids account” collecting quarters) with my Dad as the co-signer of a $500 limit, though I had a job. 12 months later they automatically upgraded me to a $1,000 limit and I’ve since opened another line of credit with a commerical bank and recently got my auto loan through the very same original credit union at a much better APR than the commerical bank would give for a brand new car.</p>
<p>For the big boys in life, AMEX is great because, as I’ve been told, they only approve you for their cards if you already have outstanding credit.</p>
<p>Turtle, I pay my card off in full almost every month (or at least what my final balance was when my statement was issued) and I have a credit history. I think my billing cycle starts on the 21st or something like that.</p>
<p>And yeah, if you don’t have a job it will be very hard to get a CC without a co-signer. Doesn’t have to be a fancy one; I got mine while working at a supermarket.</p>
<p>
Like I said, I wasn’t 100% sure since I never made that specific comparison on my own report, but I thought it was worth mentioning since the main reason behind getting a CC at a young age is to actually build the credit history so that you are more credit worthy in the future.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarification.</p>