Basically, I'm a student and I think I want a Credit card!

Monzo Chat Travelling with Monzo
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Hey guys,

This is my first time making a post so I’m quite new to this.

I’m basically planning to have a massive holiday once I have finished my final year of uni. I have saved quite a bit of money from it and I wanted to find a way to optimize my flying experience, which is where I been researching about credit cards that have reward schemes on flight and such. I have a part-time job which gives me enough left over to save/ to use for that month and a maintenance loan which I normally just save all of it. I know I’m going to make quite a lot on flights, accommodation and on the new Razer Blade laptop.

I just wanted to know if it would be ideal for me to get a credit card that this point when I don’t have a proper full-time job.

edit: The card I was mainly looking at is this, I want to know if anyone has this card and I want to know if it was useful to you.

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The rewards ones tend to have quite high minimum income to be accepted

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Do you already have a credit card through a student account?

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The requirements don’t really say anything about income.

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nahh

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Rarely do til you apply and then what each one classes as income varies

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That would have been a “good” way to have built something of a credit record with a lower bar for entry as they already “knew” you

Might not be just income taken into account

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@arsheman721 Try a credit card eligibility checker tool like the one at MSE credit club.

I don’t have any insight into Amex but suspect someone with no previous credit history is unlikely to have their application accepted.

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tried to see my credit score on the link you gave me but didn’t work so I used clearscore.

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They will ask about your annual income when applying for Amex. Well just try and see. There’s no harm

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Hey Ahmed, not an expert so going purely from personal experience of having travelled.

  1. Plan to use a credit card as a means to access your money i.e. get one with low exchange rate and cash withdrawals. I carried my debit card around for emergencies but they incur large fees/exchange rates.
  2. Don’t use your credit card for money you don’t already have i.e. pay off the balance on a monthly basis otherwise you’ll be charged interest. That will eat into your travel funds and you’ll want to use every penny for fun stuff!
  3. This all still means you can use the ‘credit’ from your credit card in emergencies though.

I went with Halifax Clarity card. Zero commission. Zero cash machine withdrawal fees.

I did away with ‘reward’ schemes because they either charged money or… I’ve just realised that I assumed you were backpacking (or flashpacking) like I did! Perhaps you have more money to spare so this is all nonsense. Regardless, I hope at least some of this will be helpful and you have an amazing time!

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There is harm if they do a hard credit enquiry and you don’t get accepted, especially for those with little or no prior credit history.

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But you will be charged interest on cash you take out, from the day it’s withdrawn.

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I would say I’m a flashpacker but you really helped as I’ve only been looking at credit cards as a way to reward myself with a cheaper flight.

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it shouldn’t harm my credit score too much if I do get declined.

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That’s the card I have, although the “Starwood Preferred Guest” program actually doesn’t exist any more, it’s been rolled into some new Marriott program in the US already and that’ll probably happen here soon too.

If you think you’ll use the credit card a lot, then it’s worth pointing out that AMEX acceptance isn’t as high as Mastercard or VISA.

What drew you to this particular card? The points offer?

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It will harm you if you do too many hard checks in a short amount of time.

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You might want to try Monzo for this :wink:

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Depending on how long you have until your trip - you might not get enough points to make the card worthwhile (not to say it isn’t at all useful post your trip).

If you know you’ll be able to hit the milestones and bag the big introduction points and you are confident you’ll be able to pay off what you spend then they are useful - but just beware of the large % rates on points/rewards cards.

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Oh yes, but monzo wasn’t around when I travelled.

Also, there’s a £250 limit per month before 3% fees. £250 cash might be ok if there’s lots of card facilities around but that’s not always the case.

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