Journey Student Rewards from Capital One Review

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Card Summary

Recommended Credit Score

• Average or no credit

Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One: Is It a Good Option?

The Capital One Journey Student credit card offers a reasonable choice for students and others who are looking to build credit. The card allows you to earn modest rewards while incentivizing on-time payments and making it easy to track improvements to your credit score.

Although the rewards you can earn with the card aren’t outstanding, you do get bonus rewards every month you make an on-time payment. Still, it’s worth comparing other student credit cards against the Capital One Journey to see if you might benefit from a signup bonus or more generous rewards with different credit card companies.

In this review:

• Capital One Journey Benefits
• Downsides of the Journey Student Credit Card
• How it Compares to Similar Cards

Capital One Journey Benefits

The biggest benefits of the Capital One Journey Student card come in the form of credit-building tools and travel perks. Just 1% cash back on all purchases — which goes up to 1.25% each month you make an on-time payment — may not be very generous, but it’s better than many competitor cards that offer no rewards for students at all.

Cash Back Rewards

Capital One Journey’s 1% cash back on all purchases is at the lower end of most cash back credit cards offer, but you can boost the cash back rate to 1.25% in any month you make an on-time payment.

The Discover it® Chrome, another student credit card, provides 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants on up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter. It also matches all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year.

Grow Your Credit Over Time

The Capital One Journey Student card is a good card for helping students establish a good credit history. Although you may not start with a high credit limit, you can qualify for an increase by making five on-time monthly payments. Having access to more credit can help you boost your credit score, which is affected by the amount of available credit you have versus the amount of available credit you use.

Capital One’s CreditWise Tool also helps you track your credit profile by providing insight into the factors that make your score go up and down. This allows you to make smarter financial decisions that will benefit your credit report in the long run.

Travel Perks

The Capital One Journey Student card also shines when it comes to travel rewards by offering many of the same perks as some of the higher-end Capital One cards, including:

• No foreign transaction fees: Use your card for free when traveling abroad.
• 24-hour travel assistance services: If you lose your card, Capital One can provide you with a cash advance and an emergency replacement card.
• Rental car insurance: You’re covered for damage due to theft or accident if you pay for a car rental with your Capital One card. This can save you as much as $9 per day if you decline the car rental company’s coverage.
• Travel accident insurance: Use your credit card to pay for your airfare and enjoy automatic insurance for covered losses,  to get protection or covered losses at no extra charge.
• Roadside assistance: Get help in an auto-related emergency (i.e. tire changing and towing).

Shopping Perks

Capital One also provides Journey Student cardholders with some shopping perks. These include:

• Extended warranty: Eligible items purchased with your card receive additional warranty protection at no charge, provided the original manufacturer’s warranty lasts three years or less.
• Virtual card numbers from Eno: You can use the virtual card number when shopping online to keep your real card number private. This helps protect you from identity theft or data breaches.

Downsides of the Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One

Although there are many advantages to the Journey card, there are also some downsides as well. These include:

• No signup bonus: Other cards offer a bonus for signing up and meeting certain spending requirements within the first few months of becoming an account holder.
• A sub-par rewards rate: A maximum rewards rate of just 1.25% cash back is less generous than some other student cards.
• High APR: There’s no introductory APR for purchases or balance transfers, and a 26.99% APR is very expensive if you ever need to carry a balance from month to month.

How it Compares to Similar Cards

Although the Capital One Journey Student Card is a decent card for everyday purchases and provides incentives for on-time payments, chances are you can get better rewards elsewhere.

Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One vs. the Discover it Student Cash Back Card

The Discover it® Student Cash Back card offers much more generous rewards for students than the Journey card from Capital One. Not only can you earn up to 5% cash back at different stores each quarter — up to quarterly limits — but Discover also gives you a $20 statement credit each school year in which you have a 3.0+ GPA (up to five years).

Discover also provides a bonus for new cardmembers in the form of matching all the cash back you earn in the first year, while Capital One offers no bonus incentive at all for becoming a cardholder.

Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One vs. the Deserve EDU Credit Card

The Deserve EDU card is another alternative worth considering. This card offers 1% cash back on all purchases, but the Deserve EDU card gives you free access to Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime provides members with two-day free shipping on eligible purchases as well as access to streaming movies and music, among other perks.

Bottom Line

If your primary goal is building credit and you don’t mind a less generous rewards program, the Capital One Journey Student card is a decent option. The increased credit limit and bonus cash back provide a good incentive to help you make all payments by their due date, while CreditWise gives you additional tools for improving your credit score.

However, there are more generous options out there for cash back rewards on everyday spending, so evaluate your options before deciding which student credit card is best for you.

>> Read More: Best Capital One credit cards

5 Capital One Journey Credit Card