Best Credit Cards for Recent College Graduates

It’s not uncommon for recent college graduates to either have no or poor credit. Some may have never used a credit card before or haven’t had many opportunities to establish a credit history. Others may have been able to obtain credit history via a credit card or other means, but they may not have yet established good habits around managing their credit.

In both scenarios, there are options: those graduates may want to consider looking at what the Petal 2 Visa Card and the Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa Credit Card have to offer.

If you’ve managed to build good or excellent credit through your student years, a couple of your top options include the Capital One Quicksilver Rewards Card and the Chase Freedom Flex Card.

Keep in mind that you might not need to pay any annual fee, and not have to sacrifice benefits worth using or the ability to earn rewards.

The links in the table above will take you to one of our partner's sites, where you can compare and apply for a selected credit card.

• Best Credit Cards for Graduates With No or Poor Credit
• Top Credit Cards for Graduates With Good to Excellent Credit
• Quick Tips for Comparing Credit Card Offers
• What You Should Know When Applying for a Credit Card
• Common Questions About Credit Cards for Recent College Graduates

The best credit cards for college graduates with no credit are also the ones you may want to apply for if you have poor credit. All the top cards we’ve selected from this segment come with no annual fees. Whether or not you need to pay a security deposit depends on the card you choose.

• Petal 2 Visa Card - Great for earning cash back
  The Petal 2 Visa Card is an unsecured credit card, so you don’t have to pay any security deposit. The initial credit limit may vary from $300 to $10,000. Cardholders can earn up to 1.5% cash back on purchases by making their payments on time. Purchases made at select merchants earn up to 10% cash back. This card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.
• Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa Credit Card - Perfect for building/rebuilding credit
  This card is a great option as Chime doesn’t check your credit when you apply for this card. However, you must have a Chime Checking Account to get the Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa Credit Card. This secured card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, but doesn’t offer rewards for spending.
• Discover it Secured Credit Card - Good for earning cash back
  The Discover it Secured Credit Card requires a $200 minimum security deposit. You might be able to qualify for a standard unsecured Discover card after seven months through automatic account reviews. This card offers 2% cash back at restaurants and gas stations on combined spending of up to $1,000 every quarter. All other purchases earn cash back too. The Cash Back Match offer lets you double the cash back you earn at the end of the first year. And as with other Discover credit cards, this card doesn't incur foreign transaction fees.

Selecting a secured card may tie up funds temporarily. But keep in mind that you might be able to qualify for an unsecured card relatively quickly by using your secured card responsibly. How long this takes depends on your card issuer. For example, Discover states that it conducts account reviews after the first seven months. Bank of America and Wells Fargo also offer automatic reviews, but don’t disclose their timelines.

If you’ve already established good or excellent creditworthiness, you have a wider selection of cards to choose from. While we’ve identified the Capital One Quicksilver Rewards Card as the best credit card for new graduates with good or excellent credit, we’ve selected a few other very good options too. Plus, none of these cards charge annual fees, and all offer rewards/cash back.

• Capital One Quicksilver Rewards - Perfect for earning cash back on everyday purchases
  As one of the best credit cards for college graduates, the Capital One Quicksilver Rewards card keeps things simple by offering a flat 1.5% cash back on all purchases. New cardholders stand to earn a $200 welcome bonus by spending $500 on purchases in the first three months. An intro 0% APR offer applies on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months. You pay no foreign transaction fees when you use this card outside of the U.S.
• Chase Freedom Flex - Good for earning cash back on travel, dining and drugstore purchases
  The Chase Freedom Flex Card comes with a spend-based welcome bonus and lets you earn cash back faster during the first year. It offers 5% cash back on quarterly bonus categories you need to activate and on travel purchases made through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Restaurant (including eligible delivery and takeout) and drugstore purchases earn 3% cash back. All other purchases come with 1% cash back. A low intro APR offer applies on purchases and balance transfers. This card also offers cell phone, purchase and travel protection.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited- Ideal for earning cash back on travel, dining, drugstore and everyday purchases
  The Chase Freedom Unlimited Card lets you earn a $200 welcome bonus by spending $500 on purchases in the first three months. You also stand to earn extra cash back on grocery purchases during the first year. Travel purchases made through Chase Ultimate Rewards earn 5% cash back. You get 3% cash back on drugstore and dining (including eligible delivery and takeout) purchases. All other purchases earn 1.5% cash back. This card comes with a 0% APR offer on balance transfers and purchases. It also offers purchase protection, extended warranty protection, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, auto rental collision damage waiver, and travel and emergency assistance services. However, keep in mind that this card charges foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside the U.S.
• Apple Card - Great for earning cash back through select merchants as well as on Apple and everyday purchases
  The Apple Card offers 3% cash back on Apple purchases as well as on purchases made at select merchants. All other purchases made using Apple Pay via your iPhone or Apple Watch earn 2% cash back. Cardholders can also use this card to pay for new Apple products through interest-free monthly installments. If you use it outside of the U.S., you pay no foreign transaction fees. However, it doesn’t come with a welcome bonus or an intro APR offer.

Applying for a credit card might seem pretty straightforward, but there are a few things you need to know before you get started. For instance, it helps to know what impact a credit card might have on your credit score. Consequently, it also helps to understand how to use a credit card responsibly.

A credit card will affect your credit score, for better or worse. If you wish to improve your credit score, it’s crucial that you make all your payments on time and keep your credit utilization ratio at an acceptable level. The credit utilization ratio refers to the amount of credit you’ve used from your total available credit. This number should ideally be below 30% as anything above that can negatively impact your credit score.

Making late payments, missing payments, having a high credit utilization ratio and applying for new credit in quick succession will lower your credit score.

It’s also important to distinguish fact from fiction. For example, the idea that simply closing a credit card account will help your credit score is a myth. On the contrary, a credit card is often the key to establishing a good credit score — and often, the longer a credit card account is open, the better.

But before you apply for a credit card and begin using it, it’s vital to understand your limits when using the card to spend. Creating a budget and knowing your spending habits can go a long way. According to a Sallie Mae report, the monthly credit card balance for a college student stood at $1,423 in 2019. The same report suggests that 71% of college grads felt they were good or excellent at dealing with their finances. It also added that as many as 60% of students paid off their balances in full each month.

As someone who’s trying to build or rebuild credit, one of the most important things to do is use your credit card only to make purchases that you can pay off in full each month. If you don’t, you’ll need to pay interest charges. In addition, if you end up using a significant portion of your card’s credit limit, you can expect that to lower your credit score.

Building a good credit score early in life comes with numerous benefits. For starters, lenders look favorably upon borrowers with good or excellent credit, which brings with it increased odds of approval. People who have good credit scores typically get lower interest rates than those who don’t. By qualifying for better credit cards, you stand to earn rewards faster and enjoy a variety of perks.

Potential employers may check your credit reports to establish credibility. There’s a possibility that a landlord might check your credit score before leasing an apartment. This might also be the case when you’re setting up new accounts with utility companies.

Students who’ve never used credit may work on building their creditworthiness through alternative means.

Having two or more cards after graduation might work well for you if you manage your credit in a responsible manner. Spreading expenses across multiple cards can help to keep your credit utilization ratio low.

Multiple cards may also be beneficial if you wish to make the most of your spending by earning cash back or rewards. You can often achieve this by using a combination of cards to earn high rewards/cash back across various bonus categories. For example, using the Chase Freedom Flex Card and the Citi Double Cash Card can give you the ability to earn high cash back on various bonus categories as well as everyday purchases.

The possible downsides of getting two or more cards are that you might find it hard to manage multiple accounts and keep track of due dates. Besides, having multiple cards may also lead to accumulating unnecessary debt that you find hard to repay.

If you plan to use multiple cards, bear in mind that you should ideally space out your applications. This is because your credit score temporarily drops by a few points every time you apply for new credit.

We revise our list of the best credit cards for new graduates based on data from card issuers and other reliable sources such as the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. The process involves looking at all new and existing cards from this segment and comparing them against key parameters such as annual fees, interest rates, rewards and benefits. The ratings we award each card after evaluating them against our unique ranking methodology help our experts to determine the top options for different types of users.