Credit cards for college students

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Hear from our editors: The best credit cards for students in March 2023

Updated February 28, 2023

This date may not reflect recent changes in individual terms.

Editorial note: Credit Karma receives compensation from third-party advertisers, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our third-party advertisers don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. It’s accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted.

Written by: Gaby Lapera

College students may want to start their credit journeys with a new card. But qualifying for a traditional credit card can be challenging when you have limited income and a thin credit history.

That’s where student credit cards come in. Many of these cards are designed and marketed specifically for college students, and they may often include features tailored to student needs.

Take a look at our picks for best student credit cards, all of which come with no annual fee.

• Best for studying abroad: Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card for Students
• Best for rotating bonus categories: Discover it® Student Cash Back
• Best for building good credit habits: Journey® Student Rewards from Capital One®
• How we picked these cards
• FAQs about student credit cards

Best for studying abroad: Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card for Students

Here’s why: This card provides straightforward travel rewards for students. Add that to no foreign transaction fees and you have a winner for students studying abroad.

Check out reviews of the Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card for Students to learn more.

Best for rotating bonus categories: Discover it® Student Cash Back

Here’s why: This card offers a great cash back rate on rotating categories, but you have to remember to activate the bonus rate every quarter. Still, it’s an all-around solid pick for most students.

Take a look at reviews of the Discover it® Student Cash Back to learn more about this card.

Best for building good credit habits: Journey® Student Rewards from Capital One®

Here’s why: A lot of students are new to credit, which is why this card aims to help them build good habits. You’ll get a higher cash back rate if you pay on time, and you’ll be considered for a credit line increase after six months of responsible usage.

Read reviews of Journey® Student Rewards from Capital One® for more details.

How we picked these cards

We narrowed our search for the best student cards that are geared toward students. While students aren’t limited to applying for these types of credit cards, their issuers often consider students with limited or no credit history, and tend to offer better features than alternatives, like secured credit cards. We also picked cards with no annual fee because students are often on tight budgets.

When choosing our categories for the best credit cards for students, we considered factors that would be most important to students: building good credit habits and avoiding extra fees if studying abroad.

FAQs about student credit cards

How to make the most of these student credit cards and budget as a student

While focusing on rewards and perks can make picking your first credit card exciting, the biggest benefit to opening a student credit card is getting to build your credit from scratch. By starting to build credit before graduation, you can put yourself in a position to take advantage after school.

Here are some tips to help you make the most of one of these cards and budget effectively as a student.

1. Make a budget and stick with it

If you’re not tracking your finances, you won’t know if you’re running up more debt than you can handle. So before you do anything else, make sure you have a good idea of how much money you have coming in and going out each month.

To create your budget, start by listing your monthly income, including income from any jobs you have as well as anything your family provides for you. Then, list your monthly expenses, like food, school supplies, gas and car insurance. Use a budget calculator to put together an estimated monthly budget to help you achieve your goals. Do you want to save up for a purchase, add to your emergency savings or simply stay out of debt?

Then, consistently track your finances. Here are a few ways to do that.

• Use a tool to record your expenses so you’ll be more conscious of your spending. Get them down in a spiral notebook, an Excel spreadsheet or in your Notes app — whatever works for you.
• Deposit cash and checks directly into your bank account as you receive them.
• Open all bills as soon as they arrive (or when you get the alert) and pay them immediately.
• Use only one credit card while you learn how to build credit.

Following these guidelines can help you avoid putting charges on your card that you can’t pay off.

2. Spend only what you can afford to repay 

To start creating the best credit card habits, plan on paying off your balance on time and in full each month. Interest rates on student credit cards can be high, and carrying a balance from month to month could end up costing you much more than what you earn in rewards.

3. Understand APR

The annual percentage rate on a credit card is essentially how much it costs you to borrow money. It’s important to know this because when you charge a purchase to your credit card and don’t pay off your statement balance by the payment due date, it accumulates interest. But if you pay off your statement balance each month, you won’t pay interest on that balance — thanks to what’s known as the grace period.

Generally, credit card companies offer a grace period for new purchases. This period is the gap between the end of your card’s billing cycle and the date your payment is due. With most credit cards, if you pay off your statement balance in full and have no outstanding cash advances, you won’t be charged interest on new purchases during the grace period.

Heads up though: If you make only the minimum payment every month, you could be inviting debt. For example, for a $1,000 balance with an APR of 21%, it’ll take about five and a half years to pay off the balance, and you’ll pay about $662 in interest.

Make sure you know the following details of your card:

• Where to find your statement balance
• The date your payment is due
• The purchase APR and penalty APR
• The date your introductory APR ends (if applicable)

4. Make on-time payments

Late payments can hurt your credit scores. Create reminders for your due date or set up automatic payments.

5. Stay on top of your credit

Building and maintaining good credit can take time. So it’s a good idea to build good habits early, like keeping your credit utilization low and checking your scores and reports regularly. You might even find some errors, which you can dispute with the bureaus.