@Anonymous wrote:Agreed. I started off with 7 years of denials for any card, and was never told about secured cards prior to Capital One denying me for a regular card and countering with a secured card. So my expectations are at the bottom of the bucket, but I keep reaching for the stars, just in case.
Good to know that the Savor/SavorOne is off the table indefinitely. Maybe I can get a new paint job in the future. Until then, I will keep searching for other offers that fit my lifestyle needs.
I used to want to the Savor 1 card for restaurants (the Savor never made sense for us because we would have never spent enough on dining to offset the AF) but after researching here, I realized there are several other cards that what the Savor1 would do for us. I first got the BBVA ClearPoints cards that has unlimited 3% selectable categories for that include both dining and entertainment, a selectable 2% category. I then got the PNC Cash Rewards card that gives 4% on gas, and 3% on dining. Both of these cards had a combined SL of $20,300 and now after a year have a combined CL of $35,500, so they both grow very well and are both very useful cards in multiple ways. They both frequently offer 10% cash back offers at restaurants we frequently go to, and BBVA has a lot of 4 - 6X targeted offers that boost cash back for a month at time in categories like dining, groceries, and gas.
We started building DW's credit profile last year, and we started out with a Credit One card and a bucketed Cap 1 QS. Despite pretty regular spend for a year, the QS grew $350 in a little over a year. We made our daughter a AU on it and she has used it all year long. A few weeks ago after a year of perfect history always PIF, DW recieved another mighty $100 CLI. In the exact timeframe, I've received $43,200 ($19,500 on my AMEX BCP, $9700 on my BBVA, $8500 on my PPMC and $5500 on my PNC Cash Rewards) in CLI's on cards I got at the same time last year as the QS.
This prompted me to decide to completely SD the QS. It's simply not worth the effort. We made our daughter an AU on the PPMC and that is now her daily driver. We will probably end up closing the Credit 1 and Cap 1 cards after her other cards hit 1 year old.
If they were significantly older than the other cards, I'd probably keep them open for the age, but none of her cards are more than 13 months old, we'll likely just get rid of them and move on.
Welcome, @Anonymous. 
Your Quicksilver is likely stuck in the starter bucket. But given its 4-digit limit, your QuicksilverOne may have potential for growth if the card gets use. Of course, the issue is the fee on the QS1 and the notorious difficulty involved in product-changing those cards.
Regarding upgrades, the reps may see more than the link will tell you. If you have two or more cards, the link will likely show only one of them. Also, back during the short period when Savor upgrades were offered, those offers never appeared via the link. If you don't like what you see via the link, call in or chat.
While QuicksilverOne cards are hard to upgrade to no-fee cards, it has happened. The trick may be consecutive months of usage. I was able to upgrade two of these after 12 or 13 consecutive months of use. I didn't necessarily charge a lot — just enough so there'd be a payment during each statement period. It wasn't necessary to report positive balances come statement time.
You haven't mentioned any other cards you might have. But given your QuicksilverOne's limit, you might want to absorb another annual fee in order to try to coax an upgrade offer. Use the card each and every month. And once you've started to stack up a few consecutive months of use, call in and ask about upgrade offers each and every month.
If you're offered an upgrade to a no-fee card, don't be picky about the product, i.e. if the offer is for a VentureOne, take it. Once you've jettisoned the fee, upgrade offers will come more easily. You won't see any further offers for at least six months, but after that, an offer to upgrade to a full Quicksilver will likely appear.
@Anonymous wrote:I've tried avoiding the rotating cards for the time being due lack of time to plan for those categories. Sounds like I need to overcome that though. The 10% and 4-6x rotations sound very appealing. And the PNC card may be a better fit than the WF Propel at 3% on gas. Lot more research and planning on my part it looks like.
After reading up the last few weeks, and all the great responses today, I will give up any hope on making the Capital One cards more useful. They are my oldest accounts, and the most useless ones I have. I will keep them open for age, and maybe one day i'll be pleasantly surprised.
My growth on the Capital One cards looks pretty similar to what you experienced. $400 secured ($200 deposit) to non secured $900 in 5 years for the Quicksilver, and $1000 to $2100 in a little over 3 years. Very small growth compared to others.
Also I have to pay props for helping your daughter out on her credit and starting at a young age. I didn't start my journey until my mid late 20s. I mistakenly thought cash was king. It wasn't until I needed a reliable vehicle that I learned the hard way that even with a good paying job, you can't get a basic auto loan without getting royally screwed over.
I did the same thing, except it took me until I was almost 40 years old to figure it out. I didn't get my first CC until 3/2018. What's worse is DW didn't have any credit in her at all until last Oct. We put the mortgage and car loans in my name and ignorantly never saw the point or benefit to building her credit. The bad part is that she has pretty good income also, and we had done this right 19 years ago when we got married, we'd be debt free if we chose to be. I shudder at all the extra money I've paid in interest over the years because I thought cash was king. Heck, I bragged about not needing credit, all the while it was costing me thousands. We have DD as an AU on 3 cards and I'm urging her to pay attention to her credit and showing her the benefit of be responsible with it. She's on 3 cards a combined CL of $46,850 with a utlization of 1%, and when she turns 18 her credit rating will most likely be higher than what it took me years to acheive.
On Rotation categories - I do have the Discover It card while has predetermined rotating categories, but I prefer cards that have selectable quarterly categories. You do have to select what categories you want every 3 months, but like with my BBVA card. It's been on the same 3% setting since I've had it. The monthly targeted offers are pre-determined, but I keep the quarterly categories the same. With most of the cards, you can set the category for the next quarter way in advance, so I'm ever scrambling to worry about remember to set it. The Jan - Mar categories have already been set on my BBVA card for months.
Other examples of good cards with selectable categories the US Bank Cash + and Elan Max Cash 5% cards, the BOA Cash Rewards, Synovus Cash Back and Travel Rewards card, and others
I just updated a post I made right after we went on my 6 card spree late last year with the cash back and growth we achieved with them.