Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card review: A passable flat-rate cash back card

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express makes an excellent partner for the Quicksilver thanks to its highly competitive bonus category rewards rates on U.S. supermarket purchases, select U.S. streaming services,  transit and U.S. gas stations. Make sure you use the Preferred’s credits to help offset the $95 annual fee ($0 intro annual fee for the first year). If you’re not opposed to paying an annual fee, this pairing could earn rewards on all your essentials.

If you enjoy restaurants and delivery as much as cooking, the no annual fee Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card (See Rates & Fees) is a valuable choice for earning rewards. It earns competitive and unlimited rewards on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target), plus 1 percent on all other purchases. It can pair with the Quicksilver Cash Rewards because you’ll earn boosted cash back in common categories while still avoiding annual fees.

The Citi Double Cash® Card may be a better choice than the Quicksilver card simply because it offers a better flat cash back rate. You get 1 percent when you buy, plus another 1 percent when you pay off purchases, a structure that encourages you to pay off your balance. It also provides a longer intro APR on balance transfers than the Quicksilver, which could make it a better option if you have a balance to pay down.

However, one major drawback is that the Double Cash does not include an intro APR for new purchases. The Quicksilver comes with an intro APR on both new purchases and balance transfers, as well as an easier-to-earn sign-up bonus. However, the long-term rewards potential of the Double Cash could surpass that of the Quicksilver card.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is also a strong Quicksilver competitor, but unlike the Double Cash card and the Quicksilver, the Freedom Unlimited is a tiered rewards card — it earns modestly boosted flat rewards on general purchases and bonus rewards in specific spending categories. It also comes with perks like a complimentary DashPass subscription and trip cancellation insurance. These factors can easily make the Freedom Unlimited a more valuable card overall. 

The Freedom Unlimited card offers a similar welcome bonus, but if you spend a lot in the Freedom Unlimited card’s boosted categories, like dining, drug stores and travel, you might be able to earn more with the Freedom Unlimited than you can with the Quicksilver. 

The Quicksilver Cash (See Rates & Fees) offers a sign-up bonus and an intro APR offer with no annual fee, unlike the Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card (See Rates & Fees). Both cards offer a flat 1.5 percent cash back rate and may provide similar benefits depending on your creditworthiness.

The Capital One Quicksilver card requires good to excellent credit (a 670 to 850 FICO score or a 661 to 850 VantageScore). You can check your approval odds with Bankrate’s CardMatch™ tool.

The Capital One Quicksilver is a Mastercard.

If you have a good to excellent credit score and want a no-fuss way to earn rewards, downgrading to the Capital One Quicksilver can be a good move. It can certainly help save money that would otherwise go to an annual fee or foreign transaction fees. However, we recommend that you keep your previous card open as it benefits your credit history.

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance.

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards.

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value.

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee.

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score.

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less-than-standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits.
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 fraud liability for unauthorized charges.
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection.
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.