Capital One Go Cash Visa Platinum Review

One of their many cash back cards - The Capital One Go Cash Reward Visa Platinum was one of the few cash back credit cards that Capital One had in the mid 2000s. Capital One credit card strategy is slightly different from other issuers like American Express and Discover in that they also target the sub prime market and those with new credit history. Hence, even when you look at their website today, you will find various variations of their cash back and reward cards. Back when this card was available, it was specifically targeted at those with relatively new credit history.

Just 1% cash back - This card had a simple 1% rebate structure. You earn 1% cash rebates for all purchases. You will get a check at the end of the year for the amount of rebate you have earned. There is a cap of $500 in the amount of rebate you can earn in 1 year.

Annual Fee? Huh! - To add insult to injury, this simple 1% credit card came with a $19.00 which is rare for a cash back credit card as most do not charge any annual fee. The apr is libor plus 10.54%. Furthermore, the 2-cycle average daily balance method is used for balance calculations. I guess Capital One tried to get away with the annual fee because they have explicitly said this card was for those with little or no credit history.

Is it fair to even compare this card? - I am kind of in two minds as to whether we should be even be comparing this card to it's peers. Because if we did that, they would rank last and be miles behind the line.

For example, during that era, the Citi Dividend Card paid 5% rebates on gasoline, supermarket and drugstores and 1% on everything else. Chase also had a card called the Chase Cash Plus that had the same reward formula.

Clearly, this card simply cannot compare with the best cash back credit cards. But should we even do that? And I'm asking because Capital One has explicitly said who this card was targeted at and I guess when you do not have a long history, you simply cannot get the best card (at least until you have built up a solid score).

A specific card for a specific audience - The Cap One Go Cash Visa is clearly not the best cash back card around. In fact, just looking at the reward structure, we would never recommend it to anyone. Having said that, their target audience is for those who have little credit history and simply may not be approved for the better cards in the market. For these folks, it might have been worth the shot to apply.

Update - The Capital One Go Cash Visa has been discontinued and replaced by the Capital One No Hassles Cash Rewards Card. This is a slight improvement over the Go Cash as it pays 2% rebates on gas and groceries purchases. But the no hassle cash card has been recently changed to the Cap One Cash Rewards (with a new swanky green card design).