Credit cards A review of the facts
Here's how to tell the good student credit cards from the bad ones. * What is the interest rate? If the APR (Annual Percentage Rate, meaning the standard interest rate) is at or within a couple of points of the APR of a regular credit card, the offer is good. Avoid student credit cards with higher interest rates. Also avoid credit cards whose default rate is substantially higher than the default rate for a regular credit card. This is the rate you'll pay if you make a mistake in paying your bill, and it can be entirely too easy to make such mistakes, so get a default rate that's as low as possible.