Capital One Quicksilver Student

Unlimited 1.5% on every purchase, every day. No categories, no caps, no activation, no self-selection, no first-year rate that changes. Against its Savor sibling — same issuer, same $100 bonus, 3% on four categories — this earns less on groceries and dining and the same on everything else.

The case for choosing it anyway is that a first card's job is to build a payment record, and a card with no moving parts is a card you're less likely to mismanage. The gap between 1.5% and 3% on a student's spending is a few dollars a month; the gap between a clean payment history and a patchy one is years of borrowing costs.

That said, if your spending is mostly groceries and takeout — which for most students it is — Savor Student pays double on exactly that and costs the same nothing. This card is the better pick specifically for someone whose spending is spread out or unpredictable.

$100 after $300 of spending in the first three months, identical to Savor Student. It's the most achievable welcome offer in this catalog and it applies here on a card with no categories to route spending through.

As with Savor Student, the APR isn't verified in our data. Read it from Capital One's own disclosure before applying — on a student card, the cost of a carried balance is the number worth knowing before you're in a position to find out.

One rate on every purchase, no categories, no caps, no enrolment, no annual fee. Of the four student cards in this catalog it is tied with Bank of America's Unlimited Cash Rewards for Students as the simplest, and simplicity is a genuine feature on a first card rather than a lack of one.

Its adult namesake pairs the same 1.5% with 15 months at 0%. This one has no verified introductory period, which is arguably the right shape for a student card: a 0% window is a tool for carrying a balance, and that is not the habit a first card should be teaching.

As with Capital One's other student card here, we have not verified the interest rate. The page shows the gap rather than a number we have not read at the source.

So the comparison this page can support is limited to the rewards rate and the absence of a fee, both of which are straightforward. Get the APR from Capital One before you apply, and treat it as the more important of the two figures.

One rate on every purchase, no categories, no caps, no enrolment, no annual fee. Of the four student cards in this catalog it is tied with Bank of America's Unlimited Cash Rewards for Students as the simplest, and simplicity is a genuine feature on a first card rather than a lack of one.

Its adult namesake pairs the same 1.5% with 15 months at 0%. This one has no verified introductory period, which is arguably the right shape for a student card: a 0% window is a tool for carrying a balance, and that is not the habit a first card should be teaching.

As with Capital One's other student card here, we have not verified the interest rate. The page shows the gap rather than a number we have not read at the source.

So the comparison this page can support is limited to the rewards rate and the absence of a fee, both of which are straightforward. Get the APR from Capital One before you apply, and treat it as the more important of the two figures.