<p>Hello! I’m a senior going off to college next year, and my parents have discussed getting a credit card for me. I just got mail from Discover today about their student credit card, but I was worried that fewer places take Discover in comparison to Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. I know American Express requires an annual fee, but I think they have a parent-child card system that’s a little different. </p>
<p>Would it be better to get a student credit card or open a card in conjunction with my parents? How did you deal with getting money to your child when he/she went off to college? Any input, especially specific recommendation for plans, would be appreciated. (:</p>
<p>My apologies if this thread has already been posted; I couldn’t find one after 2009, and the current one seems to be about credit cards v. debit cards.</p>
<p>Your parents can get you a card of your own, with your name on it, attached to their account. This has several advantages: They can keep an eye on your spending since it shows up on their monthly statement (so that any bad habits can be nipped in the bud :)). Also, this begins to establish credit in your name. This is the route we chose with our student.</p>
<p>If you get your own card, avoid one that has an annual fee. Other than that, IMO it doesn’t matter much, since the most important thing to know about a credit card is that you pay it off every month without fail. Visa is by far the most common, and Discover is the least.</p>
<p>No annual fee and a decent interest-free grace period for purchases are characteristics of a card useful for purchases assuming that you pay the full balance each month.</p>
<p>Visa and Mastercard are almost interchangeable in the US as far as merchant acceptance goes. American Express and Discover are somewhat less accepted.</p>
<p>If your parents add you, make sure it is to one of their newer accounts. I added my D to a card that I’d had since before she was born. Now her credit report comes up as odd and questionable because she appears to have a credit history dating from before she was born. I hope this dooesn’t follow her for life. (Our credit is excellent - it’s not the credit rating that is a problem. The timing makes it look like identy theft.)</p>
<p>If you do a search on this here on cc you’ll find many very helpful threads on this very topic. I think even the debit/credit thread had useful cr card suggestions. The older threads also have useful links to how to identify the best card for you.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to respond so late! Thank you for all your suggestions, they were very helpful. I didn’t know that I could get my own card under their name, and still have my own credit history established; I thought that sort of plan went to credit under my parents’ name. </p>
<p>I will go through older threads and post any information on specific plans I find. Thank you again!</p>
<p>My rising college sophomore got his own credit card through his bank last year. He had opened a student checking and savings account with debit card the year before. All of this was in his own name. We can deposit money into his account if we need to but we don’t monitor his spending because he’s an adult and it’s his money. He also has a credit card that’s tied to us that he can use for pre-approved purchases like travel tickets.</p>