Student Credit Card – How You Handle Your First Card?

Posted by | Student Credit Cards | Wednesday 27 May 2009 12:00 am

Student credit card is a credit card that the lending company has designed to be specifically for students. There are a few things that you should know about a student credit card. You can’t get one if you’re not registered to a college, though many have tried and still many more likely will. The credit card company will often need proof of your enrollment to give you a card. If you have no credit, you’ll have a low limit on your credit card to spend. The amount is usually somewhere between $300 and $500 for new credit card applicants.

Many credit card companies offer you outstanding deals to lure you into their hands, and they don’t tell you about the high fees that you will acquire after a certain period of time. Your best bet is to always read the fine print for the credit card you get. The 0% or low introductory rate is just that…an introduction. You may get this great discount when you first sign up for the card, but after a few months the apr might jump to 18% or more. You always want to choose a first credit card that has the lowest introductory rate and a future apr of 16% or lower. You might have no yearly fee when you first sign up with your student credit card, but after a few months you could be charged as much as $50 to keep your account active.

Student Credit Card

Student Credit Card

One common term that those unfamiliar with managing their own finances may be stuck on is apr, or annual percentage rate. Apr is a representation of the effective interest rate you will pay on the money you have borrowed by using your credit card. You don’t want to sign up for a credit card, use it even modestly, only to realize that the $5,000 you spent has turned into up to $7,000 of debt.

A student must try to payoff the outstanding balance within the specified time limit, most preferably on a monthly basis, in order to get a good credit rating. A good credit rating helps a person to apply and access further loans and credits in the future. The higher the credit rating, easier will be for the concerned person to get a loan. But most of the time it has been observed that the students (high school or college) have a propensity to spend more than their capacity and are unable to pay for the accumulated outstanding within time. This leads to a poor credit rating from the bureaus of credit rating. This may hamper their prospect for qualifying for future credits and loans.

Now you know better about student credit card and its benefits therefore you can use it wisely.

Another related article here: Free Credit Card

Benefit for Having a Prepaid Credit Card

Posted by | prepaid credit card | Monday 25 May 2009 12:00 am

Prepaid credit card is more like managing a checking or savings account than managing a credit card. What you have in your account is all you’re able to spend. There’s no revolving balance or due dates to think about.

Prepaid credit card is a payment card (usually MasterCard, Maestro, visa electron or Amex), and much like gift cards; pre-loaded with your own money. You don’t need a credit check to get one, and it’s accepted at the same locations as a normal debit or credit card, including on the internet and abroad (internationally). They are the same as credit cards, but without the credit because it is not a traditional credit card, it doesn’t report transaction history of the card holder to credit rating bureaus and in the process does not help in building credit.

The big advantage of the prepaid card is according to the providers that the product will prevent youngsters from falling into debt since money cannot be spent beyond the amount already loaded onto the card. It also helps control your credit card spending with prepaid limits.

Prepaid Credit Card

Prepaid Credit Card

Another benefit of prepaid credit card is extremely useful when you’re traveling or on holiday. Firstly this is because a large proportion of credit card fraud happens abroad. If you are using your normal credit card or debit card you stand to lose a lot of money. Fraudsters can empty your accounts or rack up huge credit card bills in your name. However a prepaid card is not linked to your bank account so you are protected. If you use a prepaid card the maximum you can lose is the remaining balance on your card.

There are several prepaid cards that are specifically for use abroad and allow you to spend abroad without foreign currency commission or transaction charges. A prepaid card will save money as it will limit your spending abroad. Using a prepaid card on holiday will therefore help you keep tabs on your spending and you won’t have to come home to a horrible bill.

You may like to read this article: Free Credit Card

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