Credit One Bank® Platinum Rewards Visa® with No Annual Fee review: Starter cash back card for people with good credit

If you’re a student, the Discover it® Student Chrome easily beats the Credit One Platinum Rewards Visa. For one, you can apply without a credit history, making it easily accessible to beginners. On top of offering 2 percent cash back on gas stations and restaurants (on up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter, then 1 percent) with no annual fee, it also has an intro APR offer on purchases. Add the welcome offer, where all your cash back earned in the first year is matched by Discover at the end of the first year, you get far more on this card.

Compared to the Platinum Rewards Visa, Discover it® Student Chrome has only one drawback: it has limited spending categories where you can earn cash back.

Instead of earning bonus cash back in specific categories, the Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card earns unlimited 1.5 percent cash back on all card purchases. There's no need to keep track of card spending over multiple categories — all spending earns the same cash back rate. Like Credit One, Capital One allows you to see if you are pre-approved for the QuicksilverOne, and you may only need fair credit to qualify for approval.

However, the QuicksilverOne card carries a $39 annual fee (See Rates & Fees) and an even higher interest rate than the Credit One card. And like the Credit One Platinum Rewards Visa, this card has no welcome offer or intro APR. Nevertheless, the card has several other benefits that may outweigh its annual fee, which can be easily offset with rewards if you use it for all purchases and payments. 

Additionally, you can enjoy perks like free credit score monitoring through CreditWise, virtual card numbers, no foreign transaction fees (See Rates & Fees) and partner benefits with Uber. If you prefer a card with more perks and don't mind a low annual fee, the QuicksilverOne may be the better choice. 

The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card can cover the remaining ground that your Credit One card’s bonus categories don’t. Plus, its monthly credit-building review feature might get you automatically considered for a higher credit line starting at only six months if you practice healthy credit habits.

The Credit One Platinum Rewards Visa can help improve your credit management habits and build your credit history if you can avoid debt and pay your balance in full each payment cycle. Its simple redemption option as a statement credit can be automatically set up making this card even more convenient, and you can check your score every month to keep track of any changes.

If you would like to experience a rewards card that is low cost and no hassle, then this no-annual-fee card can be a great start. You'll be able to earn rewards easily with its popular bonus categories and high rewards rate. 

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 initial credit line is $300 with a chance to increase it in the future based on your creditworthiness. Be aware this might come at a cost as Credit One has a credit line request fee of $49, and it’s unclear if there’s ever an automatic credit line check.

It’s recommended that you have a fair/average to excellent credit score (580 – 850 FICO Score). If you do not qualify for this card, you may be eligible for the Credit One Platinum Visa or Credit One Bank Platinum Visa for Rebuilding Credit. Unfortunately, you won’t find out until you prequalify. Still, there may be a chance to upgrade to the Platinum Visa with No Annual Fee.

With the lack of an annual fee and limited credit line, there’s definitely an opportunity to learn good credit-building habits. That being said, there’s a small margin for error when encountering the fees and high interest. If you prefer a card that gives you a little more leeway, you might want to look into the Credit One Platinum Visa for Rebuilding Credit.