State bank of India is one of leading public sector banks in India. Amongst many services offered by SBI, credit card is one of them. The bank offers credit cards for various purposes such as travel, shopping, lifestyle and many others.
However it is one of the very banks offering credit card for students. The name of the card is – SBI Student Plus Advantage Card.

Benefits and features offered by Student Plus Advantage card:

No joining and annual fee: Expensive cards carry very high joining and annual fee due to the benefits offered. However in case of Student Plus Advantage card both these fees of NIL. But if the student does not spend more than Rs. 35, 000 in the previous year then charge of Rs. 500 will have to be paid during renewal.

Supplementary card at free of cost: If the student maintains a good repayment history then SBI offers add-on card option as well. That is, family member of the student (father, mother, siblings) can get credit card for free. Add-on card is an excellent feature for someone with credit history to start building credit score.

Additional reading: Credit card for Indian students travelling abroad.

International usage: Card can also be used for international purchase. So this is a good opportunity for students travelling in countries like USA/Australia or others where credit card is the most common form of payment accepted for most purchases such as insurance premium, gas, grocery etc. However remember that student should avoid making foreign transaction and ATM cash withdrawal using this card. This is because there is a charge of 3.5% and 2.5% to 3% respectively. 3% is the cash advance fee when card is used for withdrawing money from an international ATM.

Read more on travel cards for Indian students.

Balance transfer: If the student is having any other card with huge balance then balance transfer (BT) facility can be used. Benefit is that, the rate of interest is low and balance can be repaid in EMI.

Flexi-pay option: If student makes any big purchase in any month and full repayment is difficult then SBI offers an exciting feature called flexi-pay wherein student can convert the transaction into easy installments. The tenure available is 6, 12, and 24 months. Minimum limit for the transaction amount is Rs. 2500, which seems to be a better deal.

Reward points: Student gets 10X reward points on using the card for making payment at departmental or grocery store both in India and abroad.

Eligibility:

• Applicant must be the education loan customer of SBI
• He/she should be 18 years of age

Should student use credit card in India?

Credit card is a good option to start building credit score. Assuming student doesn’t have any type of loan/credit repayment history, having a credit card is a recommended to start building history. However good CIBIL score is possible only when the monthly bills are paid on time, in full, and credit limit is not over crossed.