by Mark TarsesCredit card companies love college students! Student credit cards usually have very high interest rates and rarely offer perks or rebates. If they do offer rebates, they are usually worthless, like discounts on overpriced vacations packages.
College students are being swamped with credit card offers. Credit card companies have booths on college campuses offering lures like free CD players and concert tickets to students who sign up for their cards, and many college students receive 100 to 200 credit card offers in their dorm mail boxes every semester!
Finding a good deal on a student credit card is difficult. There are so many of them, and the terms keep changing.
Right now (August, 2003), the best student credit card appears to be the Chase Platinum MasterCard for Students. Chase Student Card
The credit limit starts at $500 and is capped at $4,000. The card has a teaser rate of 5.99% for the first 6 months. Then it goes to a variable rate of prime + 9.99 percent (currently that is about 14.0% total.) That is a fair rate for credit cards, and far lower than the 20+% interest typically charged on student credit cards.
There is no annual fee, and you get a rebate of on point for every dollar spent. Points can be used at various popular student hangouts, including Gap and Starbucks.