Getting Your First Credit Card- a Brief Summary for College Bound Teens (cont.)
Contributed by Lisa Marie
Try the big credit card companies- A lot of the offer student credit cards with lower limits.
Go online and look up "student credit cards". Sounds simple, right? Well, that part is anyways. You need to do some research before applying for and accepting the cards. You need to weigh the costs. For example, one card may have a 15% interest rate with no annual fee (the fee to give you credit), while another might have 10% credit with an annual fee of $50 00.
If you pan on paying off your balances in full each month, you'd probably want to go for the card with the higher interest rate and no annual fee. The interest rate won't matter because youwon't be paying any. If you plan on carrying balances, you might want to consider the annual fee card, as your interest rate will be lower, saving you lots of your hard earned money over time.
In time, you can raise the limit on your credit card
These low credit limits won't last forever, as long as you make your payments like you're supposed to. Credit card companies usually review your account annually to decide if you are worthy of a limit increase. You can ask for a higher credit limit after having your credit card for one year, allowing to see your track record for payments and such throughout the previous year.
