YOUR CREDIT CARD OUTLET

What is the best credit card for student starting college?

Almost all Credit Cards now offer online payment ablity, so that’s no criteria for choosing a credit card. If you Must have one, get one that has a Fixed interest rate, not an adjustable rate. Be careful. I care for my granddaughter’s mail – at her request – and throw out all the offers she gets because some of what seem the most attractive have hidden in the fine print: a set-up fee of $99; an annual fee of $85; a monthly fee of whatever. You get the picture. They want to suck you in.

Get a debit card and overdraft protection for your checking account; if you don’t overdraw, you won’t have to pay interest. If you do, it’s like a loan – and you really don’t want to do it because the interest will add up quickly.

When you are ready to buy a house or a car or something major, you will be asked about your credit record, so you DO want to establish credit. However, you can build credit in other ways. If your student loan is in your name, you are establishing credit by how you make your payments; if you have a car loan (even one that has a co-signer), you’re establishing a credit record; if you have telephone or gas or electrical service in your name, you’re establishing credit.

Better than having a credit card, if you must have some sort of deferred payment mechanism, get a gas card from a service station (Mobil, Shell, Exxon, Texaco) and a credit card from a department store that you know you like to shop at (such as Macy’s) and use those to defer obligations. But be sure you don’t spend more in a month than you are able to pay off at the end of the month.

Credit card debt is a bottomless pit if you don’t keep it under control. Always pay off the bill each month or pay a lot more than the minimum payment requested.

Lesson 115 – Student Credit Cards