By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
whether you’re new to credit cards or have a few years of spending under your belt, listen up. Senior writer, Kendall Little joins me now with more tips on how to be smart with your credit cards. Kendall, good to see you. Let’s start simple. There are some college grads who’ve never had a credit card. Where should they start if they want to get one?
00:16 Kendall Little
Yeah, so if you’ve never had a credit card at all before, a secured credit card is a great place to start. These are usually going to be a little bit easier to qualify for because they require a security deposit to open. Um, over time, as you sort of build your credit, you can qualify to upgrade to an unsecured card with that issuer and get that deposit back. Some credit card issuers are also going to have credit building cards that aren’t secured from the start. You’re not going to find those great rewards and benefits, but you can use these cards to increase your credit score and then, of course, get a more rewarding card in the future.
00:52 Speaker A
What about for folks who have a few years of spending under their belt and they’re trying to kind of weigh their options when it comes to cards?
01:00 Kendall Little
Yeah, so whether you had, you know, student credit card in school or maybe you were an authorized user on a parent’s card account, you might have a few more options. Uh, you can, of course, continue to use that student credit card. Most issuers are going to let you keep spending on that card even after graduation, or you might want to take that good credit that you’ve built and upgrade. I like to recommend cashback credit cards for recent grads. You know, you can earn savings on those expenses that you’re going to be taking on, whether it’s groceries, gas, even things like streaming services and utility payments.
01:34 Speaker A
So, break down just the benefits of having and using a credit card for us.
01:39 Kendall Little
Rewards are definitely a big one. You know, whether you’re earning cashback rewards, travel points and miles, but I would say the biggest benefit is really that opportunity to build credit. Your credit card issuer is going to report your card activity to the credit bureaus every month and that’s going to show up on your credit report and affect your credit score. So as you make your payments on time, you spend within your means and you, uh, don’t spend too close to those credit limits, you’re going to really, uh, help yourself in the future when you go to apply for loans and want to get really great interest rates on those loans.