Journey Student Rewards from Capital One Credit Card Review

Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One® Review

In this article, we’ll review the Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One®, the credit-building card for students.

The Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One® offers you 1% cash back on all purchases and has no annual fee. The combination of a long list of benefits and a responsible spending habits incentive makes it ideal for young students who are building their credit from scratch. The focus is on good credit management, and it rewards those who make their payments on-time. After six on-time monthly payments, your credit limit can get raised. So, despite its high interest rate, it is certainly one worth considering.

Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One®: pros and cons

Rewards system in a nutshell

The rewards rate of the Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One® is 1% cash back on all purchases, but each month you can earn an additional 0.25% (1.25% in total) if you have paid off your balance on time. Considering the 1.5% cash back rate, most widely applied within the credit card industry, for a student credit card the 1% (1.25%) rate is not bad, at all.

The rewards system is flexible, without a minimum redemption amount. If you want, you can set up a threshold to redeem your reward points automatically. They also do not expire until you close the account, and there is no limit to how much cash back you can earn.

There are few straightforward ways to redeem your rewards, and those are:

• Redeem for cash – you can request a check or apply your rewards as a statement credit.
• Past purchases – use your rewards for purchases that have been previously made.
• Gift cards – buy gift cards with your rewards.

We believe students will appreciate the simple rewards system, which can be easily monitored too.

Who can benefit from getting the Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One®?

If you’re a responsible college student who regularly complies with deadlines, the Journey Student Credit Card is a great option for you. This card will reward you in many ways for making your payments on time, and maximizing rewards will come easily. Still, it will motivate even those who are irresponsible to meet their deadlines and reap the benefits.

Be careful, because if you allow yourself to be careless and miss a payment, this credit card has one of the highest APRs for student credit cards.

If you want a basic rewards card from a reputable issuer, that will help you build credit this is the one. However, it is all relative to your individual spending habits. If you're someone who spends more than the average on groceries or entertainment, you might want to look for a credit card that offers a higher rewards rate for your preferred categories.

All those who don't miss a spring break, enjoy weekend getaways, or are maybe planning a Europe trip will benefit from this card. As part of the VISA® network, it's acceptable worldwide, and there are no foreign transaction fees. Along with the travel benefits, it makes a nice choice for travelers too.

Although it is regarded as a student credit card, anyone with an average credit score can apply for it. So if you’re not a student, but think this is a good card – go for it.

Are there any other benefits?

Unlike other credit cards, this one doesn't offer bonus categories that earn you higher rewards rates or a sign-up bonus. However, it has some nice perks that separate it from other cards. Some of them are:

• Travel insurance – you are insured for travel accidents.
• Extended warranty protection – additional warranty (at no extra charge) on some items you purchased with the card.
• Text alerts – you get text messages if there is some suspicious or unusual activity with your credit card.
• Capital One’s assistant, Eno – Eno is available to you 24/7 for any assistance you may need you're your credit. It even enables you to pay online with virtual card numbers without revealing your actual credit card number.
• Card lock – if you notice your card is missing, you can immediately get it locked in the Capital one Mobile app.
• $0 fraud liability – if your card gets stolen, you won’t be held responsible for any charges that you didn’t authorize.
• CreditWise - Capital One’s free tool that enables you to monitor your credit score without affecting it.
• 24/7 customer service – Capital One’s customer service representatives are here for you, seven days a week, at any time.

Conclusion

We are a bit conflicted when it comes to the Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One®. It is a good card for students to start with and slowly make their way to better credit scores and better credit cards. The best part about it is the incentive tools for good credit management, and it is nice that it lacks the typical credit cards’ fees.

The high APR doesn't go to its advantage, especially considering that it's a credit card for students with no credit history. Those at the beginning of their credit-building «career» might not be punctual with all their bills and payments. Maybe at least a no APR intro period would've been appropriate here.

New students who want to focus on developing good spending behavior and thus build their credit score, but don’t care too much about rewards will have good use of this card. To give you a sense of what you can get out of the rewards program - if you spend $500 a month, you’ll get $75 cash back in a year. Keep in mind that this is only if the 1.25% cash back rate is applied. For the majority of students, every cent counts, so this is fairly satisfactory. Those who give more importance to rewards might like the Discover It® Student Cash Back credit card better, it offers 5% in rotating categories.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply