Earthlings

Sorry, I meant, a major bank in your college town. But be aware of how much you need to keep in the bank and all your spending on the credit card when it's time. Like I said above, I think the SW credit card would be a good one for your location (you said MCI). Also, I think someone mentioned above, Southwest is cheaper fly out of and get to a destination and to fly to Europe or South America like you said.

particlemn

glad to hear i just like to add caution becasue many people come her and ask questions and then go head in and get into trouble, i ask these questions not to judge, but to make sure you are thinking about the whole picture not just free travel.

lwildernorva

Understood and an admirable attitude. The major issue arises when you have a credit card in hand, a short-term goal (gosh, that girl in Economics class is cute!), and lose sight of your plan (maybe she'd be interested if I could get tickets to that hot concert). Suddenly, you find yourself $500 in the hole.

And the strange thing is that many young people facing that situation (and plenty of older ones, too) decide that double or nothing is the right strategy rather than paying off the balance. Of course, the financial institutions make it simple (you don't have to pay off the outstanding balance, just a $20 minimum payment), and they know once you've tasted buying without having to pay in full immediately, you'll do it again.

Giving your folks the card may work but keep in mind it's a two-way street. Any debts they run up are yours--great if they pay them off since it's a benefit to your credit history; not so great if they don't since your name is on the card. And the chances of the card not being paid off? Well, I don't want to be a downer, but I've seen enough marriages go into the toilet over the building of a new house. And then, everybody's more concerned about themselves rather than keeping your credit squeaky clean.

As others have mentioned, many of the folks here get great credit card offers because of a long credit history and a favorable place in life. From the banks' point of view, it makes a lot of sense to give the best offers to those with those qualifications.

I'd stay on a risk-averse path now. There are plenty of credit cards aimed at folks in just your situation which will give you an opportunity to build a credit history (although not much of a miles/points balance). Look seriously at a semester or year abroad program through your university. A friend's daughter did this, had a spectacular time, and was able to spend weekends traveling a bit of Europe while having a home base at the University of Stirling in Scotland. When I was in Dublin a week ago, I ran into some American grad students who were studying in Spain and taking cheap Ryanair flights to various European cities.

Take advantage of your youth. Money may not be plentiful, but your willingness to fly coach, sleep on a friend's (or a friend of a friend's) floor, and find cheap entertainment options (near every school in nearly every country, there's a bar or restaurant or club that will understand a college student's budget and build its business by offering good food and drinks at a relatively cheap price) will help you stretch your budget. Believe me, once you get more seriously into the kind of travel we like to do here, you won't be happy unless you're at least flying business class and staying in nice hotels. It's hard going back!

Look at FT as an online university you'll attend for the next four years. Learn how to get the cheap, easy miles (500 here, a thousand there, occasionally a bigger score will come along). Maybe if you really can remain disciplined enough to keep your credit spending under control, get a first-year fee waived, miles for first spend card although I'd wait until you get a much better idea of what program you'll first concentrate on (with your somewhat limited ability to get credit, you will have to focus on one program) and whether a two-card parlay (a United card and a Chase Sapphire Preferred that offers points that can be converted to UA miles) might work better.

I know. It's a bit frustrating being told to wait. And some others probably will tell you you don't have to. But, you can either take a long time to build a credit history that will benefit you in many ways (buying a house, starting and funding a business, even funding education sound a lot less exciting than travel, but by the time you're 25, may be much more important) or take some steps that may ruin your credit and that may take a whole lot more than 10 years to overcome.

Sundownerz

So I just looked at SW's card. Could someone explain to me what makes it a better card for me than US Airways' card or the sapphire preferred card? I have been looking at the US card and I see the sapphire preferred mentioned a lot, but I don't really know what makes any one card "better".

farwest101

Not to burst your bubble, you are highly unlikely to get any cards with meaningful bonus awards at your age - so forget about a trip to Europe using award miles anytime soon. Actually, you even thinking it is possible shows you are completely naive - about the last person who should get a credit card in their hands...

However, if you do get a card with a few thousand limit, and $1,000 cash to recycle every month, you might be able to slowly churn miles using Amazon Payments at $1K/month/12,000/yr. By the time you graduate college, you'll have enough for a coach ticket...

toomanybooks

As a 54-y.o. old fart, I'd say the most important thing is not to get roped into paying 18% interest on a credit card balance. Regardless of anything else, that will eat you alive.

Money means little to me now. I could take 10 trips to Europe financially, but I cannot get away. Time and availability is everything.

Looking back 35 years and talking to my 19 y.o. self, I'd say "What you have now is time. Burn it. You don't have a job, or a spouse, or responsibilities, or monthly payments, or ailing parents to hold you back. DO STUFF."

Travel cheap. You can do it while your body is limber and you can sleep on overnight trains and ferries without pain and you can get drunk and be up at 6 am with vigor and you can live on bread and cheese and salami and beer and wine. Sleep in train stations, or on the beach on a Greek island. You are free.

You have fewer boundaries than I. Take advantage.

nwflyboy

What's "better" is in the eye of the beholder, and will be different for different people based on both their tastes and circumstances.

Be careful in calibrating your expectations based on what you see here (and anywhere on the intertoobs, of course). You will see many people here and on blogs who brag about constantly flying first class to exotic destinations, staying in 5 star hotels, etc. To the extent those things are true, they are generally not easily available to someone "just starting out".

For example, some people are focused on flying in premium cabins to exotic international destinations. Nothing wrong with that (!) but also not very practical for everyone - especially for someone in your situation. Great for someone who applys for dozens of credit cards every year (and who has a credit score, income, and the knowledge of how to play the game and when to stop playing) and who can get away with it. But probably not for you.

My advice is to just read up and learn what you can, take it slow, and you will eventually figure out what's best for you. Be careful - if you're not, you can hurt yourself with this stuff.

Sundownerz

Ruining my credit is definitely something I want to avoid :P. That's why I'm here asking the veterans! I will be studying abroad in the next couple of years. It's one of the things I look forward to most. However, I am hoping to do more than one semester outside of the country and I thought reward travel might be a good way to do it.

So I can't get a card like that and I do what you are saying. What do you mean by Amazon payments and that taking four years assumes that it would be the only way to get points? Aren't there other good ways to get points?

And you certainly aren't bursting any bubbles. I came here pretty skeptical because of my age. My hope has been that someone else around their college years has played the game and could give me some advice. Maybe not, though!

deant

Remember that with your age, your parents will need to co-sign for you. You have not mentioned a job so I assume you don't have any reportable income. You also state you want to spend MORE than one semester abroad. That gets costly. You will want to travel and see things abroad that will require you to spend money for "normal" housing and also for housing when you travel.

As for your parents using your card when they build their house, that will probably, for the most part, not work. Building a house means spending thousands, or tens of thousand dollars at a time. Because of your lack of income, you will probably have a very low credit limit that would not cover house building expenses.

As others have said, reward cards tend to require very good credit - and if I recall correctly, you don't have any significant credit history that has been reported to the credit agencies. Your best bet is to, in the short term, change your banking such that you can get a rewards earning debit card. After probably 6 months with that bank AND their debit card, apply for one of the reward cards WITH that bank. Don't worry so much about what miles you earn but about building your credit rating.

Sundownerz

This is exactly how I feel. I don't require much and there is so much in this world to see.
I am happy to go slow and I have been reading this forum and frugal travel guy for a couple of weeks now.
Well yes I do want to spend more than one semester abroad and yes it will be expensive, but I don't mean that I want to spend multiple semesters abroad. Also, depending on what school I go to, it shouldn't cost me that much more to stay abroad compared to on campus. After my one semester studying I meant backpacking somewhere with my cousins or a couple of friends.
And if it makes a difference I do have a part time job. I make anywhere from 350-550 a month during the school year and up to 1000 a month in the summer. Also I mentioned earlier that I have a 2-year loan with a bank. It is a 3000 dollar loan and I have paid half of it back. Should that not show up on my credit score?

drminn

You can - and should, actually get a credit card if you are 18 years old. My son was in your exact situation a couple of years ago, ready to go to college, a part time summer job but not much else in terms of income. He had a savings account since he was a small child, on his 18th b'day we got him a checking account, and a student credit card from Discover card.

The Discover card has no annual fee, $500 credit limit, they actually give you a bonus for paying on time. I also put him as an authorized user on my United card (for 5000 miles of course). He has been using the Discover card and paying it off every month for about 2 years now, his credit score on Creditkarma is in the 720 range and he is getting ready to apply for his own Visa card in the near future. My point is, start slowly and deliberately, in 2 or 3 years you can start trying your luck at one of the bonus cards - it is a marathon, not a sprint.

beachmouse

On the bright side of the passport renewal thing, at least your next one is good for ten years instead of only five years.

Sundownerz

Thank God! I only had the stupid thing for two years. It's a money grab!

ZontarTheThingFromVenus

When each of our three children entered junior high, we opened a Chase Freedom account and set the credit limit at $1000 - I was the primary card holder and they were an authorized user. They used the card for their monthly expenses, paying it off in full every month, and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER carried a balance. As they each turned 18, you could request a form to fill out and sign from Chase which would allow them to become a joint primary account owner. They continue to use the card while in college, and as they graduate they can then request from Chase to become the sole primary account holder. Our oldest found his Freedom card invaluable as he traveled around the country for job interviews after graduation. With the Freedom card your UR points will continue to acrue and will never expire, and you can get a Sapphire Preferred card later on for more options.

AlohaDaveKennedy

I'd raise the coin-on-a-string bar easily to at least 24k a year. But it takes focus and effort. The trick is to design a steady miles flow with minimal resource consumption all the while manufacturing a good credit rating. You have to buy into the concept that the only time you borrow money is to make money.

Right now see if the folks can get you on an AMEX (with your own account number and "customer since" date). Don't even touch your card - let your folks activate it, make a charge on it, then let it build some pseudo credit history while locked in a vault.

I agree that Sapphire is likely where you want to end up, BTW, but not as the first step after you get that AMEX in play.