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The Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card offers solid cash back on every purchase and allows you to earn cash without activating a category every quarter.
Get rewarded for all your purchases
The card gives you 1.5 percent cashback on everything you buy. The Welcome Bonus ($200 after you spend $500 during the first three months) is a nice and quick bonus that is easy to get. Both of these perks are very competitive among cards with no annual fees. Speaking of fees, Quicksilver doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees either.
There are some cards that offer more cash back on every purchase, but they tend to fall short of at least one of those other areas. Perhaps their signup bonuses are lower, or they charge annual or international transaction fees.
Quicksilver sends rewards daily as transactions are posted. Most of the best credit cards make you wait until your monthly statement closes. You can exchange your cash back in the form of statement credits, as well as receive a check or a gift card. Cardholders can also donate rewards to charity or use them to offset their Amazon.com purchases.
The Quicksilver rewards are very simple. There is no need to calculate score values or odds. Awards are presented in dollars and cents (“cash awards”). And there is no minimum repayment threshold.
If you have other credit cards that give you more than 1.5% cash back in some categories but less in others, Quicksilver can help you earn more rewards in those categories that you can’t maximize anywhere else.
You can earn even more rewards using offers from Capital One, a free online shopping portal for Capital One cardholders. It provides enhanced rewards (often 10% cash back or more) at certain retail stores.
Introductory APR if you need to carry a balance
Generally speaking, reward cards are not very profitable if you have a balance because the typical interest rate is much higher than the reward payout. But the Quicksilver card has an attractive offer for new cardholders: 0 percent starting annual interest rate on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months of account opening. After that, the variable annual rate ranges from 16.49 to 26.49 percent, depending on creditworthiness.
Quicksilver can be a good choice if you want more time to pay off large purchases, but be sure to hit them before the 15-month mark when interest begins to accrue.
Useful Benefits for Retail and Travel
Some Quicksilver cards work on the Visa network, while others carry the Mastercard logo. Both can include helpful benefits. I had a Visa Signature card. These additional privileges include:
- Extended Warranty: This doubles the U.S. manufacturer’s written warranty for repairs to two years or less with a warranty of two years or less.
- Purchase protection: If qualifying purchases are damaged or stolen within 90 days of purchase (up to $1,000 for each loss and a maximum of $25,000 every 12 months).
- Car Rental Damage Disclaimer: This is secondary coverage, meaning you need to go through a personal car insurance policy first if you have one, but it can still be useful.
- Lost baggage reimbursement: You can submit up to two claims per year, charging the full cost of a regular carrier ticket up to $1,500 each.
World and World Elite Mastercard holders also receive additional travel benefits such as travel accident insurance and travel assistance.
Please note that some Quicksilver cards work on the Visa network, which may also include useful benefits.
Additional Benefits
A few other perks of Quicksilver that are nice to have, though not entirely unique, are contactless functionality and free credit monitoring. Contactless payments (by touching a card or phone at the point of sale) are rapidly gaining popularity as the pandemic has made people wary of touching potentially contaminated surfaces.
Free credit monitoring offers another kind of protection. It can alert you to identity theft issues and also help you improve your credit score, which is one of the most important indicators in your financial life.
CreditWise by Capital One is known to alert you to changes in your credit history and keep you updated on your credit score and report. It also lets you run sample scripts to see how certain actions (such as opening a new account or paying off a debt) might affect your account.
What credit score do you need to qualify
The Quicksilver Card is sold to individuals with a good to excellent credit history (which usually means a credit score of 670 or higher, although this is not a guarantee of approval).
The average FICO score is 716, so most people are in the ballpark. If your score is between 580 and 669, you may be better off with a Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards credit card. It has fewer benefits, but is easier to claim. You can always upgrade later once you improve your credit score.
bottom line
A Quicksilver credit card may be suitable for those who want to “set it and forget it”. It comes with great perks and every purchase you make will earn you a flat rate. Use the Capital One offer portal to increase your cashback and get the most out of your rewards.
Editorial disclaimer
The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective judgment of our contributors and is not based on advertising. It was not provided or ordered by credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to our partners’ products.
