About the Author: Kasey Steinbrinck is a former TV producer and newspaper reporter who now writes about personal finance and consumer news for The CheckAdvantage Blog. CheckAdvantage offers an affordable alternative to ordering business and personal checks from your financial institution.

Cyber Monday - the online shopping alternative to Black Friday - is a little over two weeks away. (November 26th, to be exact.) However, credit card companies are already adding incentives to get you to shop online and, more specifically, at their online retail sites. Many credit card companies offer great discounts and cash back incentives when you shop through their online retail website, and in most cases they've partnered with hundreds of prominent brands to make your cash back rewards worthwhile. But with so many great deals shaping up for Cyber Monday, credit card issuers like Discover have taken an extra shape towards getting you to buy online this holiday season.

A lot of us sign up for credit cards because we want some type of reward for our purchases; cash back, airlines miles, gas rebates cards, etc. And that's great - it's smart to get rewarded for the things you buy, anyways. However, a lot of us gloss over the many other benefits and perks you receive simply for becoming a cardholder, and odds are you might be missing out on some serious peace of mind.

(Update: Some of the credit card offers below are no longer available. For a complete list of student credit card offers available today, visit our picks for the top credit cards for students on Creditnet.com.)