BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card

BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card Review

The Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card from BOK Financial can be an ideal credit card for young adults who have little to no experience with credit cards. It features no annual fee, which can save you money.

Cardholders also earn 1.5 points on all their purchases, which is a nice perk for a student credit card. Additionally, cardholders can take advantage of a 0% introductory interest rate for six months. This applies to both purchases and balance transfers. Keep reading to learn more.

Earn Points on Your Purchases

Being a rewards card, the BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card lets cardholders earn points on their purchases. You earn 1.5 points for every dollar you spend with this credit card.

This isn’t the best points system for a rewards card, but it’s not the worst. The most basic rewards cards offer a one-to-one ratio on points to dollars spent. In this regard the card fares comparably to Chase’s Freedom®
Student Credit Card.

That being said, this is slightly better than the most basic rewards cards. You essentially earn 50% more points when you use your credit card than you would with some competitors. You also get 2,500 points when you make your first purchase with this card.

This is a straightforward points system, so you don’t have to worry about earning more or less points on certain categories of purchases. Most purchases will earn you the same amount of points. However, there are some exceptions.

Most rewards cards don’t grant cardholders points on financial transactions, like cash advances and balance transfers. The BOK College Card is no different.

Additionally, this card won’t let you earn rewards points on gambling transactions, including the purchase of lottery tickets. But you shouldn’t be hitting up the casino while you’re in college, anyway.

Redeeming Your Points

You’ve earned some points on your BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card, so now you want to know what to do with them. Unfortunately, BOK doesn’t let you browse its rewards catalog until you actually open a credit card account.

This makes it really difficult to determine what you can get with your points and how many points you need to earn to get something. More and more financial institutions seem to be doing this lately, and it’s hard not to think you’ll be surprised with below average rewards options once you sign up for a credit card.

Converting Your Points to Cash

BOK Financial does leave potential credit card applicants with a crumb of information, though. Many cardholders convert their rewards points to an account credit or a cash deposit into their checking accounts.

You can earn a $25 credit when you rack up 2,500 points. In other words, each point is worth roughly one cent. You can’t redeem your points until you have at least 2,500, and the bank only issues credits in increments of $25.

So, if you’ve earned 4,000 points, you can only redeem 2,500 for a $25 credit. The remaining 1,500 points will remain on your account until you’ve earned an additional 1,000 points to qualify you for another $25 credit.

Any cardholder can convert his or her points to an account credit. This means that if you redeem your points for $50, you can use that credit to pay down some of your card balance. If you want a cash deposit, though, you’ll have to have a checking account with BOK Financial.

There’s no limit to how many points you can earn. However, you only have five years to redeem your points before you lose them.

0% APR on Purchases

One of the perks of the BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card is its introductory zero-interest on purchases. For six months from the date that you open your account, you can take advantage of 0% APR on anything you buy.

If you’re just entering college and need to buy some things for your dorm or purchase some expensive textbooks, this is a great feature to keep in mind. However, six months is not a lot of time and will be over before you know it.

To best use this benefit, it’s important to make a list of things you need to purchase either before you apply for this card or right after getting approved. You should also budget out how much you’re going to pay each month to pay off your balance.

If you leave a balance on your credit card after the six months are up, you’ll have to pay interest on that. This isn’t terrible news, though. That’s part of having a credit card. But when you have the option to buy now and pay later for no additional charge, you want to take full advantage of that.

0% APR on Balance Transfers

Chances are that you won’t have an existing credit card balance when you apply for the BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card. But if you do, you can benefit from an introductory 0% APR on balance transfers for six months.

If you have a small balance on another credit card that you want to pay off, this can be a great feature to take advantage of. However, 0% APR doesn’t mean free with this credit card.

You still have to pay a balance transfer fee. If you have a $2,000 balance you want to transfer over, for instance, you’ll have to pay $60 in fees.

Additionally, six months may not be enough time for you to pay off your balance without causing you financial stress each month. That $2,000 transfer will require you make monthly payments of over $300 in order to pay it off before the zero-interest period is over.

And that doesn’t include paying off any purchases. You may be better off keeping your balance on an existing card to save cash every month.

But How Is This Different from the Regular Real Rewards Card?

If you compare the BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card with the regular Real Rewards Card from BOK, you’ll see a lot of similarities. The truth is that they both offer the same rates, fees, and benefits.

The only difference between these credit cards is what happens during the application process. The college card is a student card and therefore has lower standards for approving applicants.

That being said, applicants for the Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card don’t need to have an extensive and/or positive credit history to be approved for this card. Your debt to income ration – how munch money you owe versus how much you earn – also doesn’t figure as much when you apply for the college rewards card.

In short, you may be approved for this card but be denied for the regular Real Rewards Card.

Should You Apply for the BOK Financial Visa Signature® College Real Rewards Card

This card is perhaps most appealing to consumers who may not have the best credit but don’t want the restrictions of a secured credit card. You can almost see this card as inhabiting a space between a secured credit card and a regular credit card.

This card is practically identical to BOK Financial’s regular Real Rewards card. The only difference lies in the approval process. So, if you like the benefits of the Real Rewards Card but aren’t sure whether your credit is good enough to be approved, try applying to this one.

The perks of this card aren’t terrific, but with no annual fee, they are nice to have. For college students, this can be a nice credit card to have on hand while you’re in school. If you use it responsibly, you can build up a good credit rating and apply for a much more rewarding card once you graduate.

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