Student credit cards — we’ve talked about whether or not they’re a good idea and even how to get one. Today let’s focus on what happens after you get your first student credit card. It’s time to talk about how a student credit card might actually be used. What we’re going to look at is a series of educational expenses that might commonly be charged by students.

Note: We aren’t necessarily advocating using credit cards to finance these educational expenses. Instead they’re illustrating examples of how student credit cards might be used, and we’ll explore some of the upsides and downsides in each case.

Tuition, Room, Board, and other Major Educational Expenses

This is the “big stuff.” These are the expenses that actually allow you to attend your university courses or live on campus if you’re going to school away from home. These are generally the largest expenses associated with being a student.

It might sound appealing to use a credit card to finance these expenses and then pay them off over the course of the term. If you can’t get other financing options, you might even feel like it’s your only option if you want to work towards a degree. However, the interest on those large expenses could add up quickly making the costs unreasonable. You’ll probably get a better deal if you try to get a more traditional student loan. If you have no other choice, at least consider financing with a low interest credit card like the St. George Vertigo MasterCard.

Books and Supplies

The cost of textbooks can be a somewhat large up front cost to starting the school term. You need those books to complete your coursework, so skipping them isn’t likely an option. If you don’t have enough cash on-hand to cover the expense, you might turn to credit cards.

Again you have the potential issue of being saddled with high interest for an expense that might be somewhat large for a student without a lot of income. However, if you know you’ll soon be able to pay off the charges, using a credit card might not be the worst idea. It could even be a good way to earn some rewards points if you use a card like the Commonwealth Bank Awards Card.

Food and Basic Living Expenses

Finances can be tight when you’re a student. That might mean you’ll be strapped for cash occasionally, and that could lead to you using a credit card to cover basic expenses like eating out or buying groceries.

This won’t lead to problems if you know you’ll be able to pay off the balance in full quickly (such as if you need to buy food a few days before you get paid). The risk is that you might become dependent on the credit card and end up treating these basic expenses as something to finance over the long-term. No trip to the burger joint is worth the interest you’ll pay if you get into this financing habit.

When it comes to student credit cards, it really comes down to being responsible and not treating your credit cards like “easy money.” Make wise financing decisions and you might be able to use them to help you pay for an education and leads to a great job. Make poor financial decisions and you might leave school in more debt than you can handle.