| "You should also note which cards are CREDIT CARDS and which are CHARGE CARDS. American Express I believe are charge cards."
Most AmEx cards I've seen were credit cards. While I'm sure that AmEx does have charge cards, their most popular products (like it's Blue credit card) are true credit cards.
"Watch out for Capital One they do aggressive marketing to students. The problem with them is they do not report your credit limit to the credit bureau.This means anytime you use the card it appears that you are utilizing 100% of the credit allowed. For a good credit score you should only be using 30% or below."
This is a good point--if CapOne is your only card and you don't use it often, it can really drag down your credit score (since it looks like your utilization is abnormally high). Since the credit reporting agency doesn't have a credit limit number, they use your historical highest balance. If you've used your card to make a large purchase, it won't make much of a difference; however, that's usually not the case.
Most of CapOne's student cards seem to come with annual fees now and they rarely (if ever) grant credit limit increases, so students should avoid them at all costs. Capital One wasn't such a bad company years ago, but they changed their strategy and have become one of the worst (for customers, at least--their shareholders have been happy). |