If you’ve never had a credit card before and you’re looking at all the options out
there to choose from, it might feel kind of impossible to know which one to choose.
But the truth is, without a strong credit history, you probably won’t qualify for
many of the credit cards out there anyways.
But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to having a great credit card,
so today, after hours of research, I’m here to present to you what I think are the best
first credit cards out there.
I’m going to break this down into three simple recommendations.
One for students, one for if you have bad or maybe no credit history, and one for if
you have a credit history maybe from other loans but you just haven’t had a credit
card yet.
All the credit cards I’m about to recommend have no annual fee, are fairly easy to get
approved for, and of course, have great rewards.
Alright!
With that out of the way let’s jump into my recommendations.
If you’re a student, I recommend getting the same card that I got when I was a student
which is the Discover It Student Cash Back card.
This card is easy to get approved for if you are a student in college or university and
it comes with some really great benefits.
The main benefit is that you can get 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in spending on certain
categories every calendar quarter, and 1% cash back everywhere else.
And just look at these categories.
This quarter, you can get 5% back on things like rideshares and wholesale clubs, next
quarter there’s restaurants, and throughout the holiday season you get 5% back on Amazon,
Walmart, and Target.
That’s absolutely insane, but it gets even better!
For your first year with the credit card, Discover will match all the cash back that
you got so that instead of 5% cash back, you’ll be getting 10% cash back on those categories
and 2% cash back everywhere else.
There’s a few other interesting perks with this card such as cash bonuses for good grades
and free FICO credit scores, but what really seals the deal for me on this card is that
5% cash back will always be one of the best benefits you can get on a credit card.
So in the future if you sign up for another credit card with potentially better rewards,
you’ll still find use out of the 5% cash back on this card instead of having to just
throw it away in the sock drawer somewhere.
Heck, I still use my card when I can get 5% back on something I was going to buy anyways.
Now if you have a bad credit score or no credit history at all and you’re not a student,
you honestly won’t find a lot of good options out there.
Most credit cards for people in this situation are awful with a bunch of fees and no rewards.
But again, Discover has us covered with the Discover It Secured credit card.
A secured credit card is basically just a credit card with a refundable security deposit.
So to open the card, you need to send Discover a certain amount of money.
Let’s say you send them $500 to open the card.
They’ll then send you a credit card with a $500 credit limit.
And if you ever fail to pay off your credit card balance, they’ll just use that $500
you sent them to pay it back.
And to get your $500 back, you can either close your credit card account, or if you’ve
shown Discover that you can make on time payments for several months, they’ll just refund
you the $500 dollars.
As far as benefits go, this card gives you 2% cash back on gas stations and restaurants,
and 1% cash back everywhere else.
And just like with the student credit card, Discover will match your cash back in the
first year so instead you are getting 4% back at gas stations and restaurants, and 2% cash
back everywhere else.
For a secured credit card, that’s absolutely amazing.
Now if you already have a credit history from maybe student loans or a car loan, you may
be able to get a slightly more advanced credit card, in which case I recommend the Chase
Freedom.
Just like with the Discover student card, this card gives you 5% cash back on certain
spending categories every quarter and 1% cash back everywhere else.
Right now, the card also comes with a $200 sign up bonus after spending $500 on the card
in the first three months of getting it.
That’s $200 of easy money.
And there you have it!
Those are my top three credit card recommendations if this is your first time getting a credit
card.
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