Building a strong credit history is important. A great many accomplishments, from renting an apartment for the first time to buying your first new car to getting your first "real" job, require you to have good credit. Therefore, you need to build a good credit history and start as early as possible. Student credit cards are an important building block in establishing your credit history.
Start by choosing the right student credit cards. Student credit cards tend to have high interest rates and can have quite a few hidden fees, so read the fine print closely and educate yourself about what to look for. Pick a credit card with the lowest possible interest rate and no surprises hidden in the table of fees.
Then learn how to use a credit card sensibly. Using the credit card to buy a small amount each month is a good idea as long as you pay the balance in full at the end of each cycle. (After all, it is hard to prove that you can use credit responsibly if you never get around to using your credit card.) If you do carry a balance from one month to the next, pay more than the minimum required payment to reduce the amount of interest your account accrues.
If you use your student credit cards well, you will not reach your credit limit. But emergencies have a way of happening. If your balance approaches your credit limit, stop using your credit card at once. If you absolutely must exceed your limit, do everything in your power to pay back until you are under your limit as soon as possible. Most credit card companies will happily let you exceed your limit because the interest rates they can then charge you are exorbitant. Another side effect is that when you exceed your balance, a note may appear in your credit report, which will lower your credit rating.
And, of course, always pay all of your bills on time. This includes not only your student credit card bills, but your utility and rent bills. Creditors pay close attention to whether you have been late with your payments, and any bill that is late by a certain time period (usually 30 days) appears in your credit report as another note that will drop your credit rating ever further.
More of your future than you suspect will depend upon your credit report. Why leave it up to chance? Use student credit cards to establish the fact that you are a responsible and sensible consumer who can meet his or her financial obligations, and lay strong foundations for your future.