Back To School ... Apply for credit card before Direct or Grad PLUS student loan ?

[pennccrn]

Hi all: After 10 years in the working world, I'm heading back to school full-time for two years and will need to take out student loans to finance my graduate education. Currently, I have a FICO 750, pretty good credit history overall. I will be working part-time to cover my room & board in full (no money borrowed for this). Since I am able to charge my room & board to a credit card, I thought this would be great for accruing reward points/cash back. Now, if I do this would this have any impact on the student loan application for Direct or Grad PLUS? How about if I would need to venture out to priviate loans if I needed to ?

Thanks, I posted a variation of this question on the credit card board just to get another perspective as well.

Sincerely appreciate everyone's viewpoint and perspective !

[SCF]

Federal student loans are not sensitive to your credit score, so whether you open a new credit card won't have any impact your ability to get those type of loans.  The only concern I would really have is how the room/board expenses will be charged to your credit card.  If the full amount is charged at the start of the semester and you are paying it off gradually over the next several months you may owe some interest, and your score may also take a hit because of high utilization on the card (depending on the total amount, your credit limit, and any promo rate you get on the new card).

As far as private loans, I doubt just opening a new card would move your score enough to impact approval or rate.  If you max out the card before applying and it reports, that might be another story.  But keep in mind that based on what people report here, many applicants need a co-signer for a private SL even with a great credit history.