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If you are in college, then I'm sure that
you must have a
student credit card or you must be thinking of
getting one just as I did when I was in college. It has
become so very easy to get one. You can even apply
online in a safe and secure environment. I can remember
my first day going through the registration process. At
one of the tables, there was someone taking
registrations for students wishing to apply for credit
cards. There were ads all over the place encouraging
students to apply for their card. Based on all that I
have read about credit cards, I thought it was a good
thing to have. I must admit though that one of my main
reasons for applying for one was because all of my other
peers had one.
Not too long after starting college, I received my first
credit card. What a tremendous help this plastic card
was! Looking back at it now I cannot imagine what I
would done in college without it. My credit card helped
me to pay for college tuition, buy books, repair my
motorbike but I used to get an one place to another, to
pay for pizza when ever I stayed up late at night
studying, purchase the Laptop did I needed to get my
assignments done, and a whole host of other things.
Looking at those times, the only regrets
that I had were on settling to pay the minimum monthly
amount on the outstanding balance, and not being more
disciplined with my spending. In paying the minimum
amount, my credit card debt simply was not going away
fast enough. Added to this, because the credit facility
was available to me, I squandered it at times. It did
not take me long however to realize what I needed to do.
My parents always warned me about the enticement of
credit. My father would always say, " Never hang your
hat with your hand cannot reach." They always told me
that any money that was borrowed had to be repaid. I
knew what I had to do
The months that followed were a little difficult not
from the point of view of having to do without things
that I needed, but rather because I had to discipline
myself enough to know the difference between my wants
and my needs. When I got this right, maintaining my
student credit card became easy. I got rid of the
bad spending habits, and by doing this I was able to
increase monthly payments towards my credit card. Thank
God my balance started going down significantly . I
graduated from college with first-class honors in
Business Administration, and not to mention a pretty
healthy credit history and a manageable credit card debt
that was well on the way to being
liquidated.
Student credit cards are very helpful, but like all
things in life you have to manage them properly. You
must be disciplined enough not to be swayed by all the
free things that I been given away when you use your
credit card more often, and only use it when it is
absolutely necessary. You must also be disciplined
enough to have a very clear plan on how you will manage
the repayment of your card.
When many of my friends found themselves in financial
difficulty during college, I was able to help them by
giving them advice on how to manage their finances - the
very same advice that I took myself.. Most of them like
me, were able to recover from their initial financial
blunder and at the end of college they two had a pretty
good credit histories.
At the end of the day, like so many things in life
student credit cards are as good as you make them out to
be. If you apply for one and your spending habits are
bad, and you have no idea how you will repay it, then
inevitably you will end up in financial difficulty
before graduating. It may even cause you to drop out of
college as so many students that I know have done
because of poor financial management.
Learn to manage your finances and be disciplined in your
spending and a student credit card or any credit card
fro that matter, will be no problem whatsoever for you
to manage. At the end of it all you would have acquired
not just a good college education but also a great
credit rating for the future.
| Article By: Christopher
Phillips |
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