Keeping Student Credit Cards

Posted by: Meredith K. | Dec 11,2007


Is your wallet stuffed to the gills with credit and debit cards?  It’s recommended that you only have three credit cards in your wallet at any one time.  Even if you have ten outstanding cards, all with zero balances, this can make you a potential credit risk.  The amount of your balance is not the only concern.  If you’ve got ten outstanding cards, you could obviously become a credit risk at any moment.  This is especially true if all of those cards were opened up in a short time period.  

So keep your cards to a minimum.  But which cards do you get rid of and which ones do you keep?  First, you’ve got to pay off the balance entirely on your existing cards.  After all, if you could cancel a card with an existing balance, no one would ever pay off a credit card in full.  The first step is to get rid of that card that is most recent with the highest APR.  

This is most likely not the credit card you got in college.  For many people, the card with the greatest longevity is their freshman credit card. Unfortunately, this is also the card with the highest rates.  Should you keep this card around?  The answer is, “Yes.”  However, if it has very high rates, you should just pay off the balance and keep it in a locked vault to never be whipped out again.  That longevity is good for your credit rating.  Canceling that card could make your credit rating plummet.  So keeping around a college credit card does make some sense, even if the card does not have the best rates available.  

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