Best Credit Cards for Students of December 2020

What Makes a Good Student Credit Card?

Student credit cards are a bit different than other first credit cards, because credit card issuers tend to give better offers to students than non-students in similar financial situations. For example, students can get an unsecured card with rewards, no annual fee, and low fees overall—such a product doesn’t really exist for non-students with no credit history. Some credit cards even offer special discounts geared toward students.

Why Should College Students Have a Credit Card?

Having a credit card in college allows you to start building credit early, and length of credit history is an important factor in credit scores (and one you can’t quickly improve.) It’s also easier to qualify for your first credit card while you’re still a student, because of the student-specific offers out there. Here's another overview of our picks for the best student credit cards:

How Can You Get a Student Credit Card?

Getting a credit card as a student doesn’t require pre-established credit. However, if you’re younger than 21 years, you must show you have enough independent income to support making credit card payments. Otherwise, you need a co-signer who’s older than 21 and has income.

Can a Student Have Multiple Credit Cards?

A student can have multiple credit cards. However, it makes overcharging too easy. One card is enough to build credit. If getting more than one card, pace yourself by waiting a few months to see how you handle your current card(s). 

Tips for Using Your Credit Card Responsibly

• Charge only what you can afford to repay by the time the bill comes due.
• Pay your bill on time. 
• Use as little of your available credit as possible.
• Avoid cash advances. They carry hefty fees and start accruing interest immediately.

Can I Pay Tuition & School Expenses With a Credit Card?

While your school might allow you to pay tuition with a credit card, it often comes with a service charge—not to mention the interest costs you’ll accrue if you don’t immediately pay off your credit card balance.

However, for textbooks and other regular purchases, you can pay these costs with a credit card, earn rewards (if your card offers them), and pay off the balance. You might even qualify for a card with a 0% APR period on purchases, which may give you the flexibility to pay off your start-of-term expenses over time.

What Happens to Your Student Credit Card After Graduation?

Your credit card company will let you keep your card after you’re no longer a student, and it might even allow you to “upgrade” to the non-student version of your card. Check with your card company to get the details. 

Whatever you do, don’t close the card if it doesn’t have an annual fee. Keeping your oldest credit card open for a long time will help you establish a good credit history.

Methodology

At The Balance, it's our mission to give you unbiased, comprehensive credit card reviews. To do this, we collect data on hundreds of cards and score more than 55 features that affect your finances.

What We Score

In general, people care most about interest rate, annual fee, and rewards when choosing a credit card. Because people getting student credit cards are very new to the product, we focus more on average annual percentage rate (APR) and fees. Ideally, students will avoid carrying a balance or incurring fees, but in the event they slip up, it helps to have a card that doesn't slam them with high costs.

Some of those costs we look at besides APR include the late fee, whether or not the card company waives the fee for a first late payment, the recommended minimum credit score, and a foreign transaction fee. This is especially important for students who spend time in other countries. On that note: We also look at the network a credit card uses, to determine how widely accepted the card will be.

Other Things We Consider

Beyond interest, fees, credit-building features, and rewards, we also look at all credit cards' customer service features and anything that makes life a little easier while students are learning about credit, like access to a free credit score or credit report alerts. You can read more about everything we evaluate in our full methodology.