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Rewards, sign-up bonuses, balance transfers, fees, protections, and card reviews. Pick the right card and collect more from it than it costs you.
Get the Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card if you’re a college student who wants one flat cash back rate and no annual fee. It pays 1.5% on every purchase, so there are no spending categories to track or activate.
Get the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card if a quarter or more of your spending goes to grocery stores, dining, entertainment, and streaming. It pays 3% cash back on all four with no annual fee. Below that share, a student card paying a flat 1.5% on everything earns more.
Get the Discover it® Student Cash Back if you’re a student who’ll activate its 5% categories every quarter and pay your balance in full. You can apply with no credit score, and the card matches your first year’s cash back dollar for dollar. If you won’t track categories, pick a flat-rate student card.
Skip the Revvi Card if you can spare a refundable deposit for a no-fee secured card. Its fees cost $145 to $220 in the first year, and its 1% cash back on payments won’t come close to covering them. Apply only if every secured card has turned you down.
Get the First Access Visa Card only if you need a card now and have been turned down for every secured card, the kind backed by a refundable deposit. Its required fees come to $145 to $220 the first year, with $95 due before the account opens. If you can spare the deposit, open a no-fee secured card instead.
Skip the Total Visa® Card unless secured card issuers have turned you down. Its $95 program fee and its first-year annual fee of $50 to $125 are charged before you buy anything. Open a no-fee secured card instead, since its deposit comes back to you.
Take the Tilt Engage if it’s the card Tilt offers you and you can’t spare a refundable deposit for a no-fee secured card. Its $59 annual fee buys an unsecured card that Tilt reports to all three credit bureaus, and it pays the same 1% to 10% cash back at select merchants as Tilt’s no-fee Motion.
Choose a no-fee credit card that pays 3% or more at restaurants, since a $95 card’s 3 points per dollar earn the same 3% at a cent a point. Pay the American Express Gold’s $325 fee when its dining and Uber credits you’d use anyway cover it and you’ll book flights with its points.
Open the Capital One Platinum Credit Card if you have fair credit and want to build it without an annual fee or a security deposit. It pays no rewards, so if you’d charge more than $2,600 a year, pick Capital One’s QuicksilverOne, whose 1.5% cash back more than covers its $39 annual fee.
Get the U.S. Bank Cash+® Secured Visa® Card if you’re building or rebuilding credit and will pick its categories every quarter. It pays 5% in two categories you choose, like cell phone or home utilities, on up to $2,000 a quarter combined, with no annual fee. If you won’t pick categories each quarter, a flat-rate secured card pays more.
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