Compare the Features and Benefits of Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card and
United Gateway℠ Card

The Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card is perfect for someone that wants a simple cash back card (no need to remember which card to use for which bonus category and does a lot of international travel. While the Citi Double Cash card earns 2% cash back on everything, the Double Cash carries a foreign transaction fee of 3% of your purchase.

With Quicksilver, you will never pay any foreign transaction fees or annual fees, and you’ll earn a simple 1.5% cash back on everything. If you book travel via the Capital One Travel portal, you’ll earn 5% on hotels and rental cars (1.5% if booked outside of Capital One Travel).

Plus, you’ll get a small cash bonus when you meet the terms of the Early Spend Bonus with your new Quicksilver card.

PRO TIP:

If you have another credit card which earns Capital One Miles, like the Capital One Venture X, Capital One Venture, Capital One VentureOne, or Capital One Spark Miles for Business, you can transfer your cash from your Quicksilver to those cards, turning them into Capital One Miles – transferable to airline and hotel partners. $10 = 1,000 Miles.

Here’s a list of Capital One Miles airline and hotel transfer partners

The United Gateway card does a solid job of providing enough benefits to make you wonder if it will be sufficient, vs investing $150 or more on one of the other Chase United credit cards since this is the only one with no annual fee.

The answer will depend on you.

If you fly several times a year and check a bag each time, then you’ll come out ahead paying the $150 annual fee on the United℠ Explorer Card since you’ll get free checked bags (one for you and a companion on the same itinerary) every time you pay with your card on a domestic flight. You also won’t get priority boarding with the Gateway card. That said, this card gives you not one but TWO checked bags free after spending $10,000 in a calendar year – so if you always have two bags, this could actually be a better choice!

However, if you are on “Team Carry-On Only,” then this card provides many of the same benefits, including the benefit that gives you access to expanded Saver economy coach availability just like a United Silver Premier member. However, unlike all of the other United cards, you won’t be entitled to upgrades on award tickets.

Additionally, you won’t have any opportunities to earn PQPs from spending on this card whereas all the other United cards do offer that benefit.

Lastly, you might do better with a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card if you aren’t using the checked bag benefit or the expanded award availability benefit. That’s because you’ll have more opportunities to earn points from spend on the Sapphire Preferred, and while you can transfer those points right over to United, you can also take advantage of all of the other Chase Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel transfer partners.

In the end, it depends on you if this is a good card for you, or if another similar card might be better.