Back in the day, credit card companies forced people to sign up for their products on campus by offering cheap perks like frisbees or t-shirts. Those days are long gone, but credit card companies can still offer student enrollment temptations in the form of card perks and bonuses.
Take advantage of the Discover it® Cash Back Student Card, which offers student-friendly perks and benefits that not only help you earn rewards, but help you grow your credit responsibly. However, if you are new to credit cards, you can easily get confused by these perks. We will introduce you to all the benefits of the Discover it Student Cash Back program so that you can enjoy all of its benefits.
You will receive great rewards
The Discover it Student Cash Back card has a rewards program that is essentially the same as the full non-student version of the card, Discover it® Cash Back. Both are well known in the industry for their excellent first year cash back rewards program.
With the Discover it Student Cash Back program, you’ll earn double your regular cashback in your first year because Discover matches your earnings with your first year bonus cashback. So if you spend enough to earn, say, $150 cash in your first year, you’ll get $300.
You will receive at least 1% cashback on all purchases. But because it’s a rotating category card, you’ll have the opportunity to earn a much higher rate of 5 percent cashback on spending in certain categories that change every quarter (up to $1,500 per quarter, then 1 percent, with registration required). ).
Discover publishes a cashback calendar every year that lists the bonus categories for each quarter. To receive this 5 percent quarterly cashback, you need to log into your account and activate the bonus category. If you forget to activate it, you won’t get a higher rate even if you spend money in this category.
The fee is reasonable
Another thing that makes this card so student-friendly is that you don’t have to pay much for it. Here is a breakdown of the fees that are especially important to you as a student:
Annual fee
The Discover it Student Cash Back Card does not have an annual fee. This allows you to freely keep open and is good for building credit.
As you grow and move on to bigger and better cards in the future, keeping this card open will cement your credit history so that it extends as far back as possible. This can help improve your credit score so that by the time you’re ready to apply for, say, a mortgage or car loan, you’ll be in the best position.
Interest rate
You will not pay interest on new purchases for the first six months after opening the card. This is a great time to buy things you might need but can’t afford with your savings or student loans, like furnishing your dorm room or moving across the country.
If you make sure you pay everything back before the six months are up, it’s essentially an interest-free loan. At the end of the introductory period, the usual variable annual interest rate of 14.49 to 23.49 percent will apply.
Free pass on first late payment
On your first late payment, Discover will not charge you a fee. After that, every time you pay late, a fee of $41 will be charged. This gives you a pass of sorts if you’re new to making payments, but you’ll still pay in the form of hitting your credit score.
Late payments can seriously damage your creditworthiness, and this is especially true if you are just starting to earn credit. To play it safe, don’t rely too much on this feature. Instead, set a minimum amount for all your auto-pay payments, and ideally pay the full balance of your statement in every billing cycle.
No foreign transaction fees
Credit card companies often charge an overseas transaction fee of around 3 percent when you swipe a card overseas. This card does not include this fee, making it handy if you are heading to another country for a short trip or study abroad program.
Unfortunately, however, Discover is not as widely accepted overseas as Visa is, so if travel calls your name, check to see if Discover is accepted where you’re going. If not, you may consider using another card with no foreign transaction fees.
You will receive credit and security benefits
As a college student, you might be nervous about getting your first credit card, and it’s understandable. If so, you’ll love the security features of the Discover it Student Cash Back Card. If you lose your card or it gets stolen, you can easily disable it in the app or in your online account so that no one can use it.
Discover also provides you with a free, regularly updated FICO credit score so you can see in real time how your credit building efforts are progressing. It also supports several free credit monitoring services to alert you if anything suspicious happens. For example, Discover monitors your social security number on the dark web to notify you of its sale so you can take steps to protect yourself.
As more people in the world go digital, you may be concerned that people will be able to find your personal data, especially if you move a lot between home and school. To alleviate these concerns, Discover now offers a free privacy protection feature that you can enable in the app to have your name and personal information removed from 10 popular people-finding websites.
How to get the most out of Discover it Student Cash Back
The Discover it Student Cash Back card has many great features that most students will appreciate. If you want to learn how to use bonus cards, this is a great option.
If you want to get credit, set up a small auto-pay bill that will be charged to your credit card every month, such as a Netflix or Spotify subscription. Then set up your bank account to automatically pay your credit card for this small payment.
This way you set the whole system on autopilot to help you earn credit. Feel free to charge your card for other items (especially if you need to buy something that belongs to the category of quarterly bonuses), but do not forget to pay for them on time as well. Thus, you will receive all the benefits and rewards without having to pay interest or fees. If you develop this habit as early as possible, you will gain affordable perks for a lifetime that will pay off handsomely.
bottom line
College is a great time to start building up your credit because by the time you graduate, you’ll already be one step ahead. You will understand how to use debt responsibly and how to use credit card rewards, and you will have a good credit score. College is a safe time to experiment with how you will lead the rest of your life, and if that includes credit cards, the Discover it Student Cash Back card is a great choice.
Editorial disclaimer
The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective judgment of our contributors and is not based on advertising. It was not provided or ordered by credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to our partners’ products.