Review of the Capital One Cash Rewards Card
Last Reviewed: 12/14/2011
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The CapitalOne Cash Rewards credit card personifies delayed gratification (think: ketchup). It’s ultimately a 1.5% cashback card, which is fairly respectable. But there’s a bit of a catch: you need to wait until the end of each card anniversary year to collect the 0.5% extra of CapitalOne rewards (in other words, you get 1% cashback throughout the year, and then a 50% bonus at the end of the year).
The American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is without a doubt one of the best cash back cards out there, if not the best, and according to the PlasticIQ ranking engine, one of the absolute all-around top cards available. Add to that the support provided by Amex, and you may very well be looking at the Muhammad Ali of credit cards. 
The Discover Open Road Card is a cash back card specializing in gas and restaurant rewards. It is hands down one of the most, if not the most, complex rewards programs that I have ever come across. It’s so complex that it took me a full 30 minutes just to figure out how to program it into the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine. While we are big fans of Discover and tout some of their cards, unfortunately this card isn’t one of them (not per se because of the complexity, but simply because the rewards don’t add up). 
The Discover Miles card is the lightweight brethren of the invincible Discover Escape card. As with the Escape card, PlasticIQ classifies the Discover Miles card as a restricted cash-back card, because the miles earned on Discover Miles can be applied against nearly any form of travel (airline, hotel, auto rentals, cruises, travel packages) in the form of a statement credit post-purchase. 
The Capital One Venture Card is an excellent restricted cashback credit card, currently ranking 2nd in our cashback category and 3rd in our airline category, using the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine with specific spending assumptions. You may be surprised to see the Venture card appearing in the cashback category, given that cardholders earn miles (and not cash back!) with the use of the card. 
The Discover Motiva credit card is aimed at the ultra-profitable segment of the credit-using population that pays their minimum balances each month, but nevertheless carries a balance. 
The team at PlasticIQ enjoys reviewing and analyzing cards like the American Express Zync Card. Why? Because Zync (punned off of the 30th element in the periodic table–Zinc) has a complex rewards structure, making it very difficult for the ordinary Joe to sit down with a pencil and paper and figure out exactly what the card would be worth to him or her. Enter the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine. We’ve run several scenarios through the PIQ Ranking Engine, and have arrived at some definitive conclusions about the Amex Zync card. 
The Chase Sapphire credit card is a 1% cashback card with a sexy name and an excellent sign-up bonus, but as a day-to-day card, it’s more middle-of-the-road. 
If you are looking for a Costco credit card, you need look no further. As you may know, Costco only accepts American Express, and the TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express is definitely a super-strong cashback card, routinely clocking in amongst the top 5 cash-back credit cards per the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine (rank varies based on your personal spending profile).