Capital One Credit Cards

This page covers Capital One’s personal credit cards. Learn about their business credit cards here.

Overview of Capital One Cards

Card	Annual Fee	Credit Level	Highlights
Savor (Review)	$0	Excellent	3% cash back at restaurants, 2% on groceries, and 1% on everything else $150 bonus for spending $500 in the first 3 months 9-month 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers
Quicksilver (Review)	$0	Excellent	1.5% cash back on all purchases $150 bonus for spending $500 in the first 3 months 9-month 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers
QuicksilverOne (Review)	$39	Fair, Average, or Limited	1.5% cash back on all purchases Credit limit increase after 5 on-time monthly payments
Venture (Review)	$95, $0 first year	Excellent	2% cash back equivalent that can be applied to travel purchases $500 bonus (in miles value) for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
VentureOne (Review)	$0	Excellent	1.25% cash back equivalent that can be applied to travel purchases 12-month 0% intro APR on purchases, but not balance transfers $200 bonus (in miles value) for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
Journey (Review)	$0	Fair, Average, or Limited	1.25% cash back on all purchases as long as you pay on time every month Credit limit increase after 5 on-time monthly payments Branded as a student card, but applicants are not required to be students
Platinum (Review)	$0	Fair, Average, or Limited	No rewards: designed for people with fair or limited credit to build credit Credit limit increase after 5 on-time monthly payments
Secured (Review)	$0	Bad	No rewards: designed for people with bad credit to re-build credit Credit limit increase after 5 on-time monthly payments

Cash Back

Capital One offers three personal cash back cards.

 

This rewards credit card can earn good cash back on food purchases, whether you’re buying it at a grocery store or a restaurant.

 

This simple rewards card earns an unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases. With no annual fee, it could be a good choice to pair with other cards when you won’t earn at least 1.5% with another card.

There’s also a nice 9-month 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers, which could help you pay off a big purchase over time, or save money on finance charges if you’re carrying a balance on another card.

 

This card could be a good choice for earning some rewards if you don’t have much credit history established yet, or if you have fair or average credit. It earns unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases, like the regular Quicksilver, but has a $39 annual fee and doesn’t offer a 0% introductory APR.

This card offers an automatic credit limit increase after five on-time monthly payments, which can be great for people who are building credit.

 

Travel

Capital One’s two travel cards are marketed under the Venture brand: there’s the Venture card and the VentureOne.

These cards earn rewards in the form of “miles.” You can think of these as generic “points” since they don’t have anything to do with airline frequent flyer programs or the measurement unit for distance.

These miles can be redeemed for 1¢ each to cancel out travel purchases you make on the card, which include airfare, hotels, taxis, car rentals, and more.

Since the two cards in the Venture family earn rewards at different rates, and one has an annual fee, we’ve calculated that you would need to spend at least $12,667 per year on the Venture card to come out ahead in rewards value compared to the VentureOne.

 

This card will earn you the equivalent of 2% cash back on all purchases, but that cash back can only be redeemed toward travel purchases you’ve made with the card.

After the first year, you’ll have to pay a $95 annual fee for the card, so you’ll need to spend at least $4,750 per year to make up for the annual fee in rewards value.

 

The VentureOne card earns the equivalent of 1.25% cash back on all purchases, but you can only redeem that rewards value for travel purchases you’ve already made with the card.

Since there’s no annual fee, you’ll come out ahead in rewards value on your spending right away, unlike with the regular Venture card above.

 

Student & Limited or Fair Credit

Even though the Journey is marketed as a student credit card, anyone can apply, whether the applicant is a student or not. It’s designed for people with fair or average credit, or people who have limited credit and haven’t established much credit history yet, which is common among students.

Technically, this card earns 1% cash back on all purchases, but as long as you pay on time every month that goes up to 1.25% cash back. You really shouldn’t be paying your credit card bills late, since that is terrible for your credit history, so it shouldn’t be hard to always get the 1.25% rate.

Like Capital One’s other cards designed for people with average credit, this card offers an automatic credit limit increase after five on-time monthly payments.

 

This simple card with no rewards and no annual fee offers a way for people with fair, average, or limited credit history to build up positive credit history.

Since there’s no annual fee, this could be a great card to use to build your credit since you won’t need to close the card to stop paying an annual fee. However, the Journey doesn’t have an annual fee either, and it earns some cash back, so that may be a better option if you’re considering this card.

 

Bad Credit

Since this is a secured card, it requires a security deposit. It doesn’t earn any rewards, which is common among secured cards. Unlike many secured cards, though, Capital One may increase your credit limit over time without requiring an additional deposit.

 

Co-Branded & Store Cards

Capital One partners with several other companies to provide co-branded credit cards, including General Motors, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Lord & Taylor.

 

About Capital One Credit Cards

Capital One offers a wide variety of consumer credit cards for people with all kinds of credit history, from bad credit to excellent.

Some have an annual fee, while others don’t. All Capital One cards come with no foreign transaction fee.

Unlike many credit card issuers, Capital One has some cards that will automatically offer a higher credit line after you’ve paid your first five monthly payments on time, which we always recommend. This can be great for your credit utilization, a major factor in credit scores. Since Capital One reports to the three major credit bureaus, these cards can be helpful for people looking to build credit for the first time or rebuild credit.

You can use the Capital One mobile app for online banking, and if you’re in certain parts of the southern or northeastern U.S. there may be a local branch of Capital One bank near you.

Here’s a quick overview of all the Capital One consumer cards. Keep reading for more details. If you’re interested in Capital One Spark business credit cards, see this page.

Benefits

All Capital One cards come with a certain set of benefits, provided by Capital One. They also come with more benefits and protections provided by either Visa or Mastercard.

The benefits provided by Capital One are:

• CreditWise: Monitor your VantageScore 3.0 credit score, based on your TransUnion credit report, and see data from your actual TransUnion report.
• Zero Liability Protection: You won’t be held responsible for unauthorized charges on your account.
• Account Alerts: Personalized email or text reminders to help you stay on top of all account activity.
• Personalized Payment Due Date: Pick your own monthly due date.

Capital One will also provide a link to the Guide to Benefits that comes with each of their cards, a very handy resource.