Best Student Credit Cards (2024)

College can be a great time to get a credit card. After all, you’re probably spending a lot of money, but maybe nowhere near what you will when you get out into “the real world.” Use that credit card wisely, and by the time you graduate, you could have a healthy credit history, which will be helpful down the road when you’re looking to rent an apartment or buy a house or a car.

• Best overall student credit card
• Best student credit card rewards rate
• Best student credit card for flexibility
• Best student credit card if you break your cellphone
• More student credit cards to consider
• Our best student credit card methodology

Having a student credit card can also be a way to pick up a little extra money since many of them offer cash back rewards. There are a couple important things to keep in mind if you’re going to apply for a credit card, however.

Unlike most credit cards, which typically require cardholders to have a credit score of at least 580 and preferably higher before issuing a card, card companies will issue students cards without a much of a credit history, although they will ask questions like where you are enrolled, what your degree is in, how many years you’ve been in college or what your graduation date is.

While student credit cards are typically marketed to college students, they are also open to students pursuing graduate degrees. As with all credit cards, you will be asked to show proof of employment (a work study job counts.) If you do not have a job, you will need an adult co-signer. If you are not yet 18, you will not be eligible, although you can still become an authorized user on a parent or guardian’s card.

Best overall student credit card

Why we picked it

The Capital One SavorOne for Students basic’s 1% rewards rate on general purchases is fairly standard for student cards. However, the card’s real advantage is the 3% bonus rate on a wide range of spending categories, which we think mesh well with most students’ budgets—including groceries (though it excludes superstores like Walmart and Target), dining, entertainment and popular streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu.

SavorOne for Students’ signup bonus is worth taking a look at, too. It’s only $50, which is, again, pretty standard. But you only have to spend $100 to get it, which is low compared to most other credit cards.

There are some other benefits that come with this card. If you’re going on spring break, and you book a hotel or a rental car through Capital One Travel, you’ll receive 5% cash back. You can also earn 8% cash back if you make purchases through Capital One Entertainment, Capital One’s ticketing site.

The card also has perks such as travel accident insurance, extended warranty coverage and concierge service, all typical benefits that come with credit cards but are sometimes lacking on student credit cards.

Are the cash back rewards worth the fees?

Student credit cards typically do not have annual fees, so if you do end up paying fees with a student card, it’s probably going to be a late fee for missing a payment or interest charges. The variable APR for SavorOne for Students is 19.99% to 29.99%, which is likely to swamp the value of any rewards you earn. If you do carry a balance, you should look for a card with the lowest possible interest rate.

Assuming you do pay off your card every month, SavorOne for Students’ rewards are unusually generous for a student card. The average college student living off campus, spends between $1,600 and $2,400 per month, according to the non-profit College Board. But more than half of that amount typically goes toward housing. So for simplicity’s sake we assumed a $1,000 monthly budget.

If you were to spend the entire $1,000 a month in grocery stores or on dining, entertainment, and popular streaming, you would earn $410 back in your first year (including the $50 bonus after spending $100 in the first three months.) Afterwards you would earn $360 a year. For a student card, it’s by far the most generous rate of potential rewards we found that didn’t require major spending in narrow categories or other hoops to jump through.

While this card’s bonus categories are broad, chances are not all of your spending will fall into these buckets. They don’t for instance include clothes or gas. If 50% of your $1000-a-month spending fell into the bonus categories you would earn $340 in your first year, and $240 after that—still a generous amount for the student card category.

Best student credit card rewards rate

Why we picked it

If you don’t want to deal with bonus categories and are just looking for a great overall rate, check out Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card, which offers a basic 1.5% back across your spending. It’s the best overall rate we found in the student credit card category.

As with our overall winner, you also get a $50 bonus after spending $100 in the first three months and 5% cash back if you book hotels or rental cars through Capital One Travel. Apart from this, however, Quicksilver offers no extra rewards in any bonus categories.

Are the cash back rewards worth the fees?

Assuming you spend $1,000 a month with Capital One Quicksilver Rewards for Students, you’ll earn $230 in the first year with the card’s $50 bonus after spending $100 in three months. In following years, you will earn $180 in rewards.

When would you be better with this card, as opposed to our overall winner? The Capital One SavorOne for Students offers 3% cash back on groceries, dining, entertainment and streaming, but only 1% cash back on general spending. That means if 50% of your spending is in one or more of SavorOne’s bonus categories, you are likely better off with that card. If it’s less than 50%, especially significantly less, you will probably do better with QuickSilver.

Best student credit card for flexibility

Why we picked it

Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card for Students is another great card for anyone who doesn’t spend on dining, groceries or other bonus categories emphasized by our overall winner. Customized Cash offers 3% on spending in its bonus categories and lets you choose which one will work best for you each month. Among your options: gas, online shopping and travel.

While this card’s base rewards rate is only 1%, which is standard for the student card category, it also offers 2% cash back on spending at grocery and wholesale clubs. It is worth noting: Bonus rewards are capped at $2,500 in combined quarterly spending between your chosen bonus category and the grocery-wholesale category. In addition there is a $200 sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days.

Another plus for many students will be the 0% Intro APR on purchases for your first 15 billing cycles (and afterwards the 16.99% to 26.99% APR, variable.) That’s fairly rare for a student credit card, and while you absolutely want to be in the habit of paying off your expenses in full every month, a 0% Intro APR could allow you the freedom to make a big purchase, like a laptop, and pay it off over time, interest free.

Are the cash back rewards worth the fees?

While you should generally try to avoid carrying a balance on your credit card, if you do have to make a big purchase, Customized Cash Rewards’ introductory financing offer can help you avoid paying interest and fees. For instance, buying a $2,000 laptop would mean that you could make payments of $133 every month for 15 months and have it paid off, without paying any interest.

If you don’t make a big purchase and simply spend $1,000 a month on regular purchases, you’d earn at least $120 a year in cash back (and $320 if all your spending was in one of the 3% bonus categories.)

Students who drive a lot, will also appreciate this card’s potential 3% rewards on gas. The average American household can expect to spend $2,750 this year on gas. If you spend that much and got this card specially to use at the gas station, you could earn $83 a year in cash back rewards.

Best student credit card if you break your cellphone

Please note: This credit card pick has temporarily stopped accepting new applications.

Why we picked it

Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students has a perk that is standard for many of the best cash back credit cards, but rare for student cards. In fact, it’s the only student card we found that offers it: $600 of cellphone protection.

You can make two claims a year, but there is a total limit of $1,000 per year. There’s also a $50 deductible to keep in mind. Still, if you are apt to drop your phone—or it gets stolen at the library or gym—this can be a useful benefit.

One thing to keep in mind: The cellphone insurance only kicks in if you’re paying your own monthly cellphone bill with the Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students. If you’re on a family plan and somebody else is paying for your cellphone service, then this card won’t offer protection.

As for other reasons to consider this card, the cash back rewards are pretty standard—1%—but if you’re a big fan of Amazon, you might be attracted to the sign-up bonus: a year’s membership to Amazon Prime Student (worth $69) after spending $500 during the first three billing cycles.

Are the cash back rewards worth the fees?

Deserve EDU’s rewards aren’t as generous as some other cards on our list. But if you’re someone who is rough on your smartphone, the value of cell phone protection it offers could dwarf what you are likely to earn in cash back from most other cards.

If your phone ends up damaged or stolen, and you use the cellphone protection, you’ll be out the $50 deductible, but you would still save up to $550 when replacing your phone. If you’re really unlucky and something bad happens to your phone twice in a year, you would save $900 on costs to replace your phone after deductibles.

The Amazon Student Prime membership is a nice bonus too, offering all of the benefits of an Amazon Prime membership, including free two- (and sometimes one-) day shipping on most items, unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive and access to Prime Instant Video. Although with a value of $69, it’s not as generous as the $100 to $200 in cash offered by some other cards. Since it requires you to spend $500 in your first three months with Deserve EDU, it’s also a bit harder to earn.

More student credit cards to consider

Discover it® Student Cash Back

This is a credit card that offers 5% cash back in rotating quarterly bonus categories. It also comes with an automatic cash back match at the end of the first year. That’s impressive, but unfortunately, it isn’t a practical credit card for everyone. You can’t pick which categories work best for you, and some, such as “restaurants and PayPal”, are relatively narrow making unlikely students would rack up much spending there.

Discover it® Student chrome

This credit card’s base rate is 1% (and it, like the aforementioned Discover it® Student Cash Back, comes with an automatic cash back match at the end of the first year). Student chrome also offers a bonus rate of 2% cash back on spending at gas stations and restaurants, although this is capped at $1,000 in combined quarterly spending.

Our best student credit card methodology

To pick Buy Side from WSJ’s Best Student Credit Card, we looked for cards with the best rewards rate, both overall and in popular spending categories we thought would be useful to students such as groceries, dining, entertainment and travel. We also looked for cards that were easy to use.

To find out more about how we choose credit cards—and to meet our panel of experts—you can also check out Buy Side from WSJ’s full best credit cards methodology.

Note: An earlier version of this story included the Journey Student Rewards Card from Capital One as our choice for Best Card for Learning to Budget and the Chase Freedom Student credit card as a card to consider. We have removed these two picks because the cards are no longer being offered.