What Credit Card to get for a 19 year old student?
I got a lot of questions to ask!
First of all I wanted to tell you about myself so you could make your answers more fitted for me
I’m 19 in college, I spend about 50-100 a month, i was thinking about starting with a student credit card. I’m pretty responsible and pretty sure i could make all my payments on time.
I was thinking about a credit card from one of the following:
-Bank of America: Student checking
-Citi Bank
-Amazon.com student checking (because i buy thinks from there allot + they give a percent discount on the purchases i think.
-or Buy.com
which one’s the best for me? Or if you have any other suggested credit cards please list and explain.
Here are some questions i was wondering about:
-What is APR?
-When they said 0% APR for 12 months what happens after that?
-what do things like: “4.99% APR on Balance Transfers” mean?
-I already have a student saving and checking with Bank of Amer, how does the Cre-Card fit in? does it replace my debit card?
Related posts:
- Can You Transfer Student Loans To A 0% Credit Card? Is This A Smart Thing To Do Now That Loans Are At 7%?
- Can you transfer student loans to a 0% credit card? Is this a smart thing to do now that loans are at 7%?
- Will Defaulting On A Private Student Loan Cause My Credit Card Apr Rate To Change To The Default Rate?
- Can I get my hands on 10K cash from 1 credit card and then transfer balance to a 0% card for 1 year?
- Will it hurt my credit score to transfer a balance from one card to another to keep it at 0% for another year?
First, I don’t recommend credit cards, but since you want answers to specific questions here ya go:
-What is APR?
It stands for Annual Percentage Rate. It is the interest rate you pay. It usually ranges from 7% to 25%, but can go higher or lower.
-When they said 0% APR for 12 months what happens after that?
It goes up. Usually to a rate of Prime plus 7%. Depends on the card. This is the interest rate you would pay if you carry a balance.
-what do things like: “4.99% APR on Balance Transfers” mean?
They are offering to give you a discounted interest rate for transferring a balance from another creditor. One-time processing fees are usually charged for this.
-I already have a student saving and checking with Bank of Amer, how does the Cre-Card fit in? does it replace my debit card?
No, it is a separate account. So you don’t really need that credit card do ya? :)
Go with something basic for your first card, like the citi-MtvU platinum select visa/mc. It’s made for students, with a low 0% for purchases during the first 6 months, after that its something like 14.24%, which is a fairly decent rate for someone starting out in the credit world.
0% for 12 months means that for the first year you carry the card, you won’t pay any interest on your charges, basically put you will borrow money from the bank for free, until the 12 months is up. Once the 12 months is up, it goes to something like 11%, or whatever the disclosure states.
4.99% on balance transfers…this means if you have a credit card with someone else, and you owe money on it..then you can transfer the balance to that card with a 4.99% interest rate (which is good for balance transfers). Say you had a credit card with capital one, and you owed 1,000 dollars at 19.99% interest…You transfer that balance to the card with the 4.99 balance transfer offer, so you’re saving yourself 15% in interest (a significant savings!)
Bank of america is generally more difficult to get a credit card from, which is why I reccommend the Citi MtvU credit card, its easy to get without having any credit history.
**NOTE** Always be careful when doing a balance transfer! the rate of 4.99 will differ from your purchase rate (APR). The payments you make go to the lowest APR first, so say you transfered 2,000 and purchased 2,000 worth of stuff..Your purchases would be sitting at 14% (or whatever that rate is) until you paid off the entire balance sitting at the lower rate. This is how banks make money off of you. If you ever need to transfer a balance, open a new account and only use it for the transfer and don’t make ANY purchases on it.
Good Luck!
You should definitely get the Bank of America card since you have a Bank of Ameica checking account. It will be easy to view both accounts together with their online system, and you can make payments very easily. I did that before.
APR is the rate you will be paying on your balance. It is charged every billing cycle (once a month). So say you have a balance of $400 on the card and have 14% APR, you would be paying $400 * .14 * (1/12) = $4.67 in interest for that month.
That introductory APR is really good. But after that period they will probably jack it up to like 17% APR. It depends…
Balance transfer is if you have an existing credit card, you can transfer that balance to your new credit card, but you don’t get the 0% APR on it. A lot of people were taking advantage of that before and where just shifting around all their credit card debt to 0% APR cards. Banks weren’t making any money off of it so they stopped that.
All of these questions are great but I’m going to tell you the truth. You will spend however much they give you. The problem with credit is that it makes all things possible. Need beer money? There it is. Hot date? Wow her with a nice dinner. Sick of your crappy old jacket? Starter makes beautiful ones. No offense, believe me because I am not a judge and jury over your decisions, but if you are responsible, then don’t get a credit card at your age. It is a recipe for lifelong disaster. It’s a drug. No matter HOW cautious or HOW judicious you think you are, before you get out of college you will be so far in debt, that new car you want at 22 will be an old beater you get from your dad instead.
If you REALLY want to know what the terms of a credit card mean, don’t ask here. Do some investigating and find out how you will be tricked and scammed by the credit industry. A day late on your payment? Your rate goes up to 29%. Have any other cards? They’ll go up to 29% too, even if you were never late with them. 0% for 12 months? Wait until you see what happens the 13th month–all the interest comes due for the entire year you procrastinated. Oh–after 12 months you won’t be able to pay off that original balance FIRST, it’ll have to wait. Balance transfers? Do that enough times and it’ll lower your score–makes you look like you’re hiding a problem, or trying to beat the system (system = pay finance charges or we’ll drop you).
CREDIT AT 19 IS A DEAD END.
There are a lot of student credit cards offers floating around in the market. Coming from all kinds of financial institutions, these credit cards provide different benefits. Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card with its stunning designs and exceptional benefits stands out from the crowd. Why should a student start his financial life with Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card? Here are 3 unbeatable reasons:
1. Student life is where most of us start building our credit history. Imbibing good financial habits right from the student life keeps us in good books of credit rating agencies. Building credit history is key to a solid financial foundation, and no other card allows you to build your credit history like the Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card.
2. Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card helps the student save money on interest rates, annual fees. It gives a 0% Intro APR on purchases for 6 months, and has no annual fee. Since a student is just beginning his financial life and issues like credit card fraud, identity theft might bother him. Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card comes with $0 fraud liability guarantee and gives absolute peace of mind to its owner. Managing Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card accounts is a breeze because it offers Easiest Online Account Management Options. Almost all account related activities can be done online. This saves a lot of time which can be used to enjoy this golden life even more.
3. Spend as you save is the most popular benefit of Discover® Student Tropical Beach Card with it You’ll also earn 5% Cashback Bonus® on Get More purchases in popular categories that change four times a year like home, apparel and more* and up to 1% Cashback Bonus on all other purchases automatically*. Forget worrying about the expiry of rewards, because the unlimited cash rewards never expire as long as you use your Card. The credit card holder also has the option to DOUBLE his Cashback Bonus (turn $20 into $40) when you redeem for gift cards or certificates from many of our 70 brand name partners.
Apply online at:http://www.credit-card-gallery.com/Student_Card.html
check out http://www.fastcreditcardapprovals.com here you will be able to compare all major credit cards side by side on rates, fees and rewards.
The best way to use a credit card is:
1. Get a good rewards card for your normal spending categories (they vary from 0.25% to about 5% rewards in various categories like restaurants, gas, groceries, etc.)
2. Funnel your normal spending through the card (without max’ing it out) and
3. Always pay off your balance in full every month
That way you won’t care about the interest rate (APR), just the rewards — which are always in your favor.
If you follow those 3 steps I’ve mentioned above you’ll:
1. Build your credit score quickly
2. Avoid interest payments
3. Earn great rewards
Some of the better student rewards cards include the Citi mtvU card (great rewards at restaurants and entertainment venues), Citi Driver’s Edge for Students (good for gas/grocery/drug stores), and the Capital One Student rewards card.
You can see which of these (and other) cards will pay you the most for your normal spending using this rewards calculator:
http://www.creditcardtuneup.com/?card_type=College+Student