Student Credit Cards

Personally, I enjoy my independence from my parents living on my own as a college student. One area in which I am sure many college aged people desire more independence is with their finances. For me, an easy way to work towards financial independence was to get my own credit card. My first credit card was a Discover It card.

Of course, starting out with no credit requires you to get a secured card. With Discover, they will give you a secured credit card equal to the size of your deposit. I elected to deposit $200 with them, and in this way I was able to build my credit, and eventually get the deposit back, plus a credit line increase.

When you do have such a small credit line, make sure to pay off the card balance before the statement comes in, as this will make your credit score increase faster. I tried to pay off my balance as much as I could, sometimes as often as every three days.

Having a credit card is also good for security, as unauthorized purchases on a debit card are much harder to deal with versus on a credit card. Bottom line, responsibly using a credit card is a valuable experience, especially with all of the cash back you can accumulate!

FYI: I am not responsible for your poor financial habits.