Student credit card

Old Dec 27, 2013, 2:02 pm
  #1  
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Student credit card

What is the best credit card for a college student trying to establish a credit? I am 18 years old and I want to apply for a joint credit card account with my parents.

What is the best card to apply for?

What other tips does anyone have?

Thanks,
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Old Dec 27, 2013, 2:30 pm
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Student credit card

You don't necessarily apply for a joint account with your parents, rather they can add you as an authorized user to their accounts or applications.

However to get started with your credit history, considering you probably have none, I would look into the Capital One Journey card or Discover It for Students. Both have no annual fee and offer cash rewards and are great starting off points on your credit journey!
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Old Dec 27, 2013, 3:37 pm
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I would avoid Capital One and Discover at all costs

If your parents have an American Express card, have them make you an "Authorized User" on their account. Even if they don't actually want to give you the physical card, being on their account will establish you history.

Next step, I would wait 6 months and then apply for a "Secured" Visa card from your bank.

I'm turning 21 next month, with 750 FICOs across the board. Did the above, spent wisely, and I've managed to churn over 400,000 miles this year.
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Old Dec 27, 2013, 11:30 pm
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Originally Posted by tigerhunt2011
I would avoid Capital One and Discover at all costs…

If your parents have an American Express card, have them make you an "Authorized User" on their account. Even if they don't actually want to give you the physical card, being on their account will establish you history.

Next step, I would wait 6 months and then apply for a "Secured" Visa card from your bank.

I'm turning 21 next month, with 750 FICOs across the board. Did the above, spent wisely, and I've managed to churn over 400,000 miles this year.


I have a son who just started college in Sept and 18 yo. So this thread is an interest to me also. Unfortunately I was stupid enough to cancel my no fee Amex card a few yrs back so can't go this route now.
Just curious as why you said to avoid Cap one and Discover cards for students as they may be easier to get for them and no fee also

And although I'm a lot older than you, I have to learn from a young master at 21 and perhaps still a student. I would have trouble making the minimum spend to ever reach 400k miles with all the CC involved. Love to know how you meet the spending. Kindly PM me to teach an old dog some new tricks. Cheers and Happy Holidays.

Last edited by tomcanada22; Dec 27, 2013 at 11:54 pm
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 5:26 am
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Capital One has tiered customer service- they're great to their customers with their higher-end products and not so great to their customers using their lower-end products. Thus people love 'em or hate 'em. I'll weigh in as someone who's a student and dipping my feet into the churning game:

I started at 15 or 16 as an authorized user on my cousin's Discover card. Because of their ties to China's local credit/debit network it was decided that would be most convenient to user when visiting family over there.

Around the age of 18 or 19 I applied for a Costco AmEx under my own name and was approved with a $2000 limit. I've not asked for an increase since then as rules were already starting to tighten and I didn't want to rock the boat given their phenomenal service.

At 21 I applied for a Citi AA Visa and got it. This was my introduction to churning. Since then I've applied for two or three cards every six months up until now- I'm waiting until next spring or summer to do more.
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 8:09 am
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My son started with discover card when he was 18, with a $500 credit limit. After 6 months they raised it to $1000 without him asking. After a year he had a CreditKarma core of 740 and applied for AA Visa and UA Visa, and a US Mastercard 3 months later - all approved.
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 9:45 am
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The reasons I suggested Capital One and Discover is because they are very easy to get and often easy to get increased credit limits in a limited amount of time, which helps utilization and future apps for better cards.

I started with the CO Journey and will never have to throw it away (I can even convert it to a 1.5% cash back Quicksilver card if I want). It just sits in my drawer until I make one charge a month to keep it active, and helps my average age of accounts tremendously.

The ability for a soft pull credit limit increase more often then AMEX is also another benefit. It didn't take often more than a chat with someone at CO's executive office or a Facebook message.

No doubt, AMEX is a better issuer than CO, but AMEX likes to see history and within a year of having the Journey and a good credit report/history, there's no doubt (well, YMMV ) one could get approved for a BCE or BCP as I did.

I don't think there's any reason the OP shouldn't get their own card, such as a Discover IT or CO Journey, AND be placed as an AU on their parent's AMEX card. This will further his chances of getting an AMEX card when he applies for his own revolver and help the average age of accounts.

Bottom line, this card is not forever. It is to get your credit history started and hopefully the ability to keep forever to enhance your age of accounts if you grow more into the "game."
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 10:12 am
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Originally Posted by tigerhunt2011
I would avoid Capital One and Discover at all costs

If your parents have an American Express card, have them make you an "Authorized User" on their account. Even if they don't actually want to give you the physical card, being on their account will establish you history.

Next step, I would wait 6 months and then apply for a "Secured" Visa card from your bank.

I'm turning 21 next month, with 750 FICOs across the board. Did the above, spent wisely, and I've managed to churn over 400,000 miles this year.
Well done and I agree on both Cap1 and Discover.
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 1:15 pm
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Originally Posted by drminn
My son started with discover card when he was 18, with a $500 credit limit. After 6 months they raised it to $1000 without him asking. After a year he had a CreditKarma core of 740 and applied for AA Visa and UA Visa, and a US Mastercard 3 months later - all approved.


Thanks all for the insight and thoughts.
I also hope my son will have the same success.

Since most card apps. have to put in info on Employment and Annual Income, what did your son or anyone else in this situation, put as income if I assume still in school and not working? Does all these banks still approve the higher end cards such as the Preferred or Signature cards with no income but starting to have some credit history only
Thanks again
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 1:22 pm
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Discover is seeing less and less acceptance, so I would avoid it for the network. Capital One has poor rewards and awful customer service. For the first, I would start with something you can build into a card that you will have a long time. Thats why my first was a Bank of America Secured Alaska Airlines card. After 12 months they unsecured and then I requested a CLI from $500 to $2500. This past September I converted it to the Virgin Atlantic World Elite MC and got a CLI to $5000 (along with 65k Virgin Miles that I converted to 130,000 HHonors points )

As opposed to starting with a card you'll later want to cancel, thus hurting your average age of accounts, one of the primary factors of FICO scores.
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 1:24 pm
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The other thing is, avoid Credit Karma at all costs. You will never get your real FICOs for free, unless its through Barclays or Discover's FICO monitoring. My favorite is myFico.com cause you can see all 3.

For my income I put $5000 on my first secured because that's what I made that summer during a job.

Look up "Common Assets Laws" regarding loopholes for "household income" on apps.
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 1:26 pm
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Originally Posted by tomcanada22
Thanks all for the insight and thoughts.
I also hope my son will have the same success.

Since most card apps. have to put in info on Employment and Annual Income, what did your son or anyone else in this situation, put as income if I assume still in school and not working? Does all these banks still approve the higher end cards such as the Preferred or Signature cards with no income but starting to have some credit history only
Thanks again
95% chance you will not get a Signature card. The Visa Signature 100% of the time and MC World Elite level about 90% of the time both require a $5000 minimum CL. Common starting CLs are $500-$2500. You can always request a CLI and conversion to the Signature/World Elite levels later.

BUT you don't always need the Signature/World Elite level card for the big bonuses. I just got the 100,000 British Airways offer on a $3k limit Visa because I was at my exposure limit with Chase.
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 1:49 pm
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why not a citi forward card?
it is designed for students, has good regular spending cashback with 5% at entertainment, book stores, etc. Those are the categories used by most students. It is a no fee card and honestly is a great card to have as an adult
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 5:42 pm
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Originally Posted by aeneas3
why not a citi forward card?
it is designed for students, has good regular spending cashback with 5% at entertainment, book stores, etc. Those are the categories used by most students. It is a no fee card and honestly is a great card to have as an adult
The default offer now is straight 1% on everything (and that in TYP) so unless you can get the 5%, this isn't an attractive card (Cap One Journey is better for example).

Not sure about "avoid Cap One and Discover at all costs" The Cap One rewards really aren't all that poor for those wanting cash back
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Old Dec 28, 2013, 6:57 pm
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Originally Posted by tomcanada22
Thanks all for the insight and thoughts.
I also hope my son will have the same success.

Since most card apps. have to put in info on Employment and Annual Income, what did your son or anyone else in this situation, put as income if I assume still in school and not working? Does all these banks still approve the higher end cards such as the Preferred or Signature cards with no income but starting to have some credit history only
Thanks again
Actually some of the cards have a student category for profession in their application - he put all the money he gets from us plus his summer earnings, came to about $38K if I remember correctly. A lot of that goes for tuition, but they asked for income, not income minus expenses. And yes the UA and USAir cards were signature cards.
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