Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card review: Streamlined cash back for students

You may be able to earn more cash back with the SavorOne Student card than with the Quicksilver Student card. That’s because the SavorOne Student card offers double the cash back you’ll get with the Quicksilver Student in popular, practical categories like grocery stores (excluding Target and Walmart purchases), dining, entertainment and select streaming services. Since groceries and dining make up a big chunk of most people’s monthly budget — and since students may not book hotel rooms or rental cars through Capital One — it may be tough for the Quicksilver Student card and its 1.5 percent flat rate on everyday spending to catch up.

Though it gets you streamlined, consistent rewards, the Quicksilver Student card is also held back by its flat cash back rate on general purchases. The Discover it® Student Cash Back, on the other hand, gives you a chance at 5 percent back on rotating categories up to $1,500 in purchases per quarter upon enrollment (1 percent after that) and incentivizes being strategic and planning out purchases in advance to maximize your earnings. The Discover it® Student Cash Back also offers a unique welcome offer —  Discover will match all cash back you earn at the end of your first year with the card.

If you plan to travel during your studies and need to book hotels or rental cars, then the Quicksilver Student may earn you more than the Discover it® Student Cash Back, as long as you spend more than $1,500 a quarter on qualifying purchases through Capital One Travel rather than Discover’s rotating bonus categories.

The Discover it® Student Cash Back also comes with a modest introductory APR offer on new purchases, which could be a huge help if you need some breathing room to pay off a large purchase over time.

If you don’t have time — or don’t want to spend time — to track and enroll in bonus categories, the flat-rate structure of the Quicksilver Student’s rewards program might be ideal. You earn the same rate on almost every purchase you make, so you won’t need to worry about keeping up with and maximizing your rewards.

One of the better perks of the Quicksilver Student is that it skips foreign transaction fees. Eliminating this expense makes the Quicksilver student one of the best student cards for study abroad. If traveling is even more of a staple in your life and you expect to book rental cars and hotels often, the Quicksilver Student does offer boosted rates on these purchases when you book through Capital One Travel. (See Rates & Fees).

The main drawbacks on the Quicksilver Student are the high APRs and lack of intro offers to help alleviate them for a limited time. Interest doesn’t have to be an issue, as long as you pay your balances in full and on time every month. Paying on time and not carrying a balance also does wonders for your credit score over time.

A credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score. This is because cards in this category tend to be 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 the credit-building 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 expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a credit-building 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 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.

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 a credit-building card’s benefits based on how useful they are for someone looking to build a positive credit history or save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program 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.

Yes, this card is designed exclusively for students. Capital One considers a student to be anyone currently enrolled (or admitted and planning to enroll in the next 3 months) at an accredited university, community college or other higher education institution. However, you’ll still be eligible to receive rewards and take advantage of card benefits post-graduation.

Unlike some of its other cards, Capital One does not list a minimum starting credit limit for the Quicksilver Student card. That said, all Capital One credit limits ultimately depend on your annual income and overall creditworthiness, so it’s hard to say for sure what your limit will be.

If you demonstrate responsible card use, you can be eligible for a credit line increase in as little as six months with the Capital One Quicksilver Student card.

For the best chances of qualifying for this card, you should have at least fair to good credit (FICO score of 580 to 740). You can also see if you’re pre-qualified for this and other Capital One student cards on the issuer’s website, with no impact to your credit score.