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Student credit cards will always be controversial: are they a useful tool for managing a low income? Or a sure-fire way for the inexperienced to get into debt?

We take a look at the whole issue in this guide.

The student finance toolkit

Student finance guides that focus on living on baked beans are out of date; the fact that students' income is low is just one factor among many that can make money difficult to manage.

Students manage an income stream that's much more diverse than most: not only is cash coming in from a number of different sources, it's coming in at different intervals, most often monthly, termly or annually.

For example, in just one term a typical student account could see income from:

• The student loans company
• Other special loans or grants
• Earned income from part-time work
• Money from family

And, in addition, students could well experience a boost in the money they have available if their student current account provider agrees to increase their interest-free overdraft.

The outgoings side is pretty close to what everyone else has to juggle - rent, bills, food, transport - with the addition of a few added pressures.

Few social groups move as often as students, for example, with the extra expense of letting fees, delivery help or storage that such moves incur.

Overall, it's a complex, somewhat unpredictable, picture which many student finance guides utterly fail to account for.

Those that earn a more or less fixed salary every month find it hard enough to budget. No wonder students sometimes struggle.

Where do student credit cards fit?

Throwing a credit card in to the mix is held by many, then, to be somewhat akin to throwing someone that's drowning a ten ton weight.

Yet student current account providers keep offering credit cards and students keep taking them and, in many cases, using them with success.

They manage it with responsible, simple card use: here are five ways they make it work.

1. As a supplement, not a primary tool

Student credit cards should never be used as a primary budgeting tool.

For one thing, students have a much better options available to them: official Government-backed student loans and student current accounts.

Student Loans Company (SLC) borrowing is the UK's absolute cheapest long term debt. Currently students pay around 1.5% interest, make payments that are in proportion to their income and, ultimately, have the right to have the debt written off after a number of years.

While student loans take care of most day-to-day finances, then, student accounts deal with the borrowing side. No other accounts on the market offer such large 0% overdrafts and for such a long time, most convert to graduate accounts and extend that overdraft for several years after graduation.

Together, the two are not only the cornerstone but the totality of student financial products for the vast majority of students.

Student credit card users are in the minority and, if they're using the products well, will simply be supplementing these two giants of student finance.

2. With caution

Those that sell student credit cards usually do so on the basis that the deals come with low credit limits, preventing students getting into any serious debt.

However, we'd take that with a big pinch of salt: serious debt is a bit of a relative term. When your income is low, a small debt is still serious.

In addition, student credit cards typically offer higher interest rates than other credit cards so we're not sure how much protection a small credit limit can really offer.

All in all, student credit cards should be used with caution.

That means being sure to always make the minimum monthly repayment and, wherever possible, paying the purchases balance off in full within the interest-free period.

Only with that proviso should students consider credit cards for the two reasons below.

Remember, finally, that the responsibility for a credit card account lies at the cardholder's feet.

The Financial Ombudsman Service published a case study recently that the student involved must have thanked God was made anonymous: she had managed to run up a debt and was struggling to repay.

Her father took the provider to the Ombudsman service arguing that the company had offered her 'too generous' a credit limit and that she should, therefore, not be responsible for the debt.

The Ombudsman, predictably, disagreed.

3. For extra protection

Student credit card users - as with any credit card users - are entitled to extra protection on their purchases under law.

The Consumer Credit Act's section 75 promises that the credit card provider is held equally liable with a retailer, for delivery of goods and services.

This has been particularly useful in the past for students buying laptops and summer festival tickets.

Under the terms of the act, the credit card provider can offer a full refund for goods over £100 and less than £30,000 when they turn out to be faulty at point of sale and the problem cannot be resolved with the retailer. That has caught out numerous laptop buyers in the past.

Section 75 is also frequently used when events go belly up and the organisers can't pay ticket holders back.

Students who had paid by credit card were some of the few people to get their cash back when the Beachdown festival in Brighton spectacularly failed to go ahead a few years ago, for example.

Note, though, that cardholders should check this and any other form of purchase protection offered by credit card providers throughly before relying on it. Exclusions will always apply.

4. Or for extra borrowing

As a form of flexible short-term borrowing, credit cards are pretty well unmatched.

A student credit card could offer extra spending power for emergencies or that end-of-term financial down period, for example.

If a student loan payment or grant is available to cover the amount borrowed within good time of the card's standard interest-free period all the better, although given the SLC's reputation for timeliness (or, less kindly, lateness) mortgaging borrowing on future income in this way seems a little shortsighted.

No student credit card currently offers an introductory 0% deal (a 0% purchase credit card) though we have heard of some students being offered them through their main banks.

Longer 0% deals like this on purchases are obviously preferable since there's less risk of late income resulting in interest payments.

As we mentioned above, caution is advised when borrowing this way and so is knowing the credit card's terms and conditions.

As we also mentioned, credit card borrowing should come way down the list of options for students just because they have such good borrowing options available already.

As well as the SLC loans and current accounts we mentioned short-term, interest-free loans are often available from the university finance office.

5. And after homework

Do your homework is good advice for students in general. In this case, though, we're saying it because credit card providers have been known to advertise on campuses and in fresher's fairs.

Avoid signing up for a card like this: instead, do some research at home to see whether the discounts on offer are as exclusive or as useful as the provider is claiming.

The answer is often no. Students have a variety of discounts and money offers open to them already as well as the same arsenal - money-saving and voucher sites; deals from phone providers and daily deals emails - that everyone else can benefit from. Credit card providers rarely offer much more.

Such offers should never be your prime motivation in choosing one credit card, or any other financial service, over another. If other factors are equal it's certainly a nice bonus but that's about it.

Help with student credit card debt

Credit card debt can be serious for anyone. For students, facing a number of financial burdens and pressures and, potentially, inexperienced with handling money, it can be especially tough.

However, students also have an exceptional support network: their universities.

Welfare offices are there to help students facing these kinds of problems. Even if your campus doesn't have a trained financial advisor they can usually point you in the right direction.

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