Student Credit Cards and Your Credit Score
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Fundamentally, your credit score is a record of how timely you are in paying back money you have borrowed. Your credit is stored as a report and a score at a credit bureau. If you get a student credit card and use it wisely, your credit score will improve.
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Credit scores are used by any organization that deals with the lending of money, from student credit cards to colleges to realties. Companies that judge risk use your credit score, such as insurance agencies. Here is a short list of company types that are known to check your credit
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Credit scores are numerical indexes based on an algorithm developed by Fair Isaac Company, called a FICO score. Scores are negatively impacted by events such as late payment, incomplete or partial payments, defaults, and judgements or liens, and range from 300 to 850. The actual algorithm is a trade secret of Fair Isaac, but the following breakdown approximates the weighted values that compose your score
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Obtain your credit report.Clean up your credit report.Review the FICO Score Breakdown.Review the FICO Score Breakdown.Turn over a new leaf.Reduce your debt load - pay down the balances on your student credit cards.Consolidate your debts.Your credit rating, score, and report are the keys to financial freedom in the modern world. Good credit opens doors, bad credit closes them. We hope you have found this tutorial to be handy and helpful. As your credit builds and improves, the rates and terms on new student credit cards you get will improve
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•1. Student credit card companies provide student cards to students, either through direct marketing or through a marketing partner (for example, the LL Bean MBNA card)
•2. The cardholder makes a transaction with the student card at a participating merchant.
•3. The merchant captures the card data and gets approval.
•4. Transaction data is sent to a processor by the merchant's bank for routing to the issuing bank and for settlement.
•5. Merchant is generally paid within three business days.
•6. The transaction is usually posted to consumer's account within three business days.
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There are basically three types of student credit cards:
1. Bank cards, issued by banks (for example, Visa, MasterCard and Discover Card)
2. Travel and entertainment (T&E) cards, such as American Express and Diners Club
3. House cards that are good only in one chain of stores (i.e. a Sears charge card)
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Student credit card grantors generally issue three types of credit cards accounts. The basic terms of these account agreements are:
Revolving agreement.Charge agreement.Installment agreement.
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You are protected against unfair credit discrimination and are guaranteed equal access to credit privileges based solely on your credit history (or in some cases, that of a spouse or former spouse) and other financial information. Credit cannot be denied based on your age (if you are at least 18 years of age), racial background, sex, marital status, religion, national origin, or the fact that your income is derived from a public assistance program. These rights are protected by the Equal Credit Opportunity Ac
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The Truth In Lending Act requires disclosure of interest and fees that can be charged to you by a student credit card issuer. Explanation of how and when charges will be applied to your account can be found in your cardholder agreement and on the back of your monthly statement. Read these documents with care to fully understand how you are being charged and how your interest payments are being calculated. If you have any questions, contact your credit card issuer.
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The Truth In Lending Act provides you with recourse if you are dissatisfied with an item or a service purchased with your student credit card. Certain conditions must be met: The purchase must exceed $50 and have been made in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address. You must start by making a good faith attempt to resolve the dispute directly with the merchant in question. If this doesn't work, contact your card issuer in writing. Check your billing statement for full details; but remember that it is always more difficult (and often impossible) to dispute a charge once you have made payment on it.
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