Students & Reward Cards, Ideas for the Active User
In my experience, a big part of the process of picking a credit card is weighing all the different programs available to choose from. There are cards that give cash back, reward points, air miles, and all sorts of other benefits. Some cards even deposit a percentage of your purchases into a savings account in your name — kind of cool, right?
In a recent CNN Money article, I read that a new trend for banks that previously had raised interest rates due to the economic crisis is enhancing their reward card programs. For instance, if you have a credit card that gives 1 reward point for each dollar spent, you’d get 1.2 points going forward. That doesn’t sound like a lot based on the number itself, but a 20% increase is actually pretty good.
So, what could a college student do with these rewards? Well, let’s take a look.
Air Miles – Think about what you want to do in college. Is travel or study abroad part of that plan? What about spring break? A student credit card that earns air or sky miles for purchases could be used to bring down the price of your airplane tickets to and from your destination.
Points – Most point cards allow you to redeem them for gift cards, or magazine subscriptions, among other things. If you can, try to get gift cards for places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Visa Pre-paid gift cards — you can use them to buy or help pay for your textbooks or supplies.
Cash Back – It’s difficult not to imagine the benefit of getting money back on things you need to purchase anyway. I often have used cash back rewards to take care of a monthly payment here and there when I was a little low on money or had to buy a book for a class.
Just as a note, this post is not meant to encourage students to go out and charge a ridiculous amount of money on their credit cards to earn reward benefits. If you have read my previous blog posts, you would know I advocate strongly in favor of being in control of your credit; my point is this, if you are going to be using your cards regularly to maintain a credit history, why not get paid back for it in a way you can use?
Image Credit to Xelaeel on Flickr
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I should obtain a card soon..