Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card review: Low-risk, high-reward for building credit

Long considered one of the best secured cards on the market, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card could beat out the Quicksilver Secured’s rewards thanks to its higher cash back rate for purchases at gas stations and restaurants. If you spend heavily in those categories, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card’s earnings could outpace the Quicksilver Secured’s. The Cashback Match™ feature also gives the Discover it® Secured Credit Card a stronger first-year value

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card also won’t charge foreign transaction fees, will forgive your first late payment (up to $41 late fee thereafter) and offers a brief introductory APR on balance transfers. 

One of the key advantages of the OpenSky Secured Visa is its deposit and credit limit flexibility. You can put down anywhere from $200 to $3,000 and get a matching credit limit. The high end of this limit matches the maximum limit you can get on the Quicksilver Secured with good creditworthiness. This is also one of the highest maximum limits available on any secured card.

If you have the cash to spare, a large security deposit and a high credit limit will give your credit utilization ratio more wiggle room. Credit utilization makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score, so maintaining a low balance with a high limit can help your credit-building efforts. This card also doesn’t require a credit check or a bank account to get started. On the downside, the card will cost more than the Quicksilver Secured due to its annual fee and lack of rewards.

Whether you’re new to credit or recovering from past financial mistakes, the Quicksilver Secured offers a steady route to a better score. If you use this card responsibly and establish good credit habits, you may qualify for better cards.

If student credit cards aren’t appealing to you, consider opening a secured card like this one. Students who are too busy to bother with tiered rewards rates, welcome offers, perks and maximizing the value of their credit card may appreciate the simplicity of the Quicksilver Secured card.

A student or credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score. 

Students already face a ton of expenses, so extra card costs are best avoided if possible, and people with limited or damaged credit tend often find the cards they can qualify for are much pricier than traditional credit cards designed for people with a good or better credit score. 

We compare a card’s total cost, including any annual fees, account activation fees, monthly fees and more against the total cost of other cards in this category and assign each card a score based on its affordability. We also factor rewards-earning potential into our assessment of a credit-building card’s total cost, subtracting a card’s expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a card’s rewards-earning potential, we estimate its average annual rewards rate and average annual earnings based on the most popular spending categories (as covered in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending report). 

However, we use a slightly lower spending assumption ($300 per month or $3,600 per year) to estimate average earnings, assuming students and credit-builders will start out with a lower credit limit, will want to keep credit utilization low and will focus primarily on small purchases they can easily pay off.

Given the many costs students face — from textbooks to laptops — the presence of an introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers also plays a role in a student card’s score.

A card’s APR is also a major factor in its credit-building score. Each card’s average APR is compared against the average APR of other cards in the category, and the cards with lower-than-average APRs receive a higher rating. 

Though high APRs are hard to avoid when you’re just starting out or working on your score, credit-builders should strive for as low an APR as possible since they’re likely to either be new to managing cards or trying to establish better financial habits and avoid falling into debt.

Along with a credit-building card’s cost, our rating system takes into account how easy the card makes it to build credit. To assess this, we evaluate its credit limit potential and minimum deposit requirement.

Unsecured cards with a high starting credit limit and secured cards that let you put down a large deposit and get a matching high credit limit will score the highest according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric and are more likely to appear on our list. 

This is because a high credit limit can make it much easier to keep your credit utilization low, a primary credit-building factor that makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. 

Secured cards have a slight advantage in this category since the maximum credit limit on a secured card tends to be much higher than the typical starting credit limit on an unsecured card that’s available with a bad or fair credit score. However, unsecured credit-building cards have the upper hand in another key aspect of building credit: accessibility. 

Cards that carry no or a low deposit requirement can also receive a high score according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric since these cards offer a lower barrier to entry than secured cards that require you to put up hundreds of dollars in an upfront deposit. 

Indeed, some users may prefer to pay a non-refundable $50 annual fee while they work on their credit score than tie up hundreds in a refundable security deposit.

We also evaluate each card’s benefits based on how useful they are for students or someone looking to build a positive credit history and save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program, student-centric perks and access to your credit score or a credit monitoring service of prime importance, along with the ability to prequalify for the card with only a soft credit pull and a clear path to increase your credit limit or graduate to an unsecured or full-fledged rewards card.

Cards that include these benefits are likely to score higher according to our credit-building card scoring rubric.

The Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Card has no minimum credit score requirement since it's specifically intended for people with poor or limited credit.

Typically, a secured card’s credit limit is equal to the deposit you make. Unlike most secured cards, however, the Quicksilver Secured does not give you full control over your maximum credit limit. You must put down at least $200 to get a matching $200 credit limit, and while you can also add additional deposits before your account opens to receive a higher initial credit line, your maximum credit limit will depend on your creditworthiness and range from $1,000 to $3,000.

Secured cards are one of the best ways to rebuild credit if you have limited credit history or a low credit score, and they’re a good alternative if you can’t qualify for a traditional unsecured credit card. You can build a positive credit history in no time if you use your secured card responsibly by keeping your balance low and paying your bill on time every month.