Good card advice for college students?

[icyhot]

After a few months of being an AU on my cards, me and my 20 year old brother checked his scores and according to CK he has a 756 roughly. I told him now would be a good time to try to app for a card on his own. So he pulled the trigger on an Amex BCE citing $20K as his income (scholarships, grants, part time job) and the site crashed as the app was processing. The app status site couldn't find his app, so we decided to try again later. Lo and behold, his card comes in the mail with an $11K limit!! I can't even get approved for an Amex blue card. All he really buys is food and he knows to PIF or pay over minimum, any other advice for a college student and their first card or are we good?

[creditguy]

I'd say he's good for now, he's got a great card with an excellent SL, no need to go crazy with apps or anything. For optimal scoring he would need 3 cards and no more, but if he is currently comfortable with Amex then leave it at that, otherwise I'd look at a discover and a chase freedom for the rotating catergories or look for a card that covers dining out if he does that a lot, otherwise the BCE is a well rounded card that will serve him well, Congrats to him on his Amex approval.

[kdm31091]

There's really no advice that I have that you don't already know from managing your own credit. For him I'd say have a couple cards, pay in full every month, rinse and repeat. This builds a credit history. With a 20k income, I doubt he is spending enough to justify several rewards cards, so I would say the Amex and possibly one other card (a Visa/MC) should be enough for now.  There's no need to go crazy with apps because the income just isn't going to create a lot of spend/rewards across several programs.

As a side note, IMO, don't let him get in the habit of thinking to just pay over the minimum. Pay in full at all possible times. Especially for a young person it can be dangerous to start falling into the mindset of "just paying the minimum" because things can rack up quickly. There's no reason to be paying interest on ordinary, everyday purchases.

[icyhot]

He probably may need just another Visa/MC just in case somewhere doesn't take Amex, I agree he fleshy need to go crazy with apping

[jsucool76]

If he has an apartment (as opposed to a dorm) he can check about paying rent with a credit card. My first college apartment only charged $1/month to pay rent with a credit card, and I made like $8 a month in cash rewards, so it was totally worth it. =]

[RonM21]

That approval and 11K limit is great and interesting at the same time. I'm sure there would be a lot of jealous people about that.