I’ve had a Quicken VISA Card for over 10 years. There is more to the card than what is stated here. While the reward rate is 1% the redemption rate for travel is 1.7%; for example, a $500 travel credit costs 30,000 points or the value is $0.0167/point. For merchandise or travel statement credit it is exactly 1%. So, for a $500 ticket it will cost me 30K points with Quicken versus 50K with Chase Sapphire. The only better card I’ve seen for travel is Capital 1 at 2%.
Also, the Chase Quicken VISA has a $39 annual fee (not $0 as stated above) and the Cap1 has a $59 fee.
http://www.nerdwallet.com NerdWallet
Thanks for the comment Bruce. It looks like Chase offers two different versions of this card – the Rewards Visa and the Rewards Visa Plus. It sounds to me like the card you are using is the Plus.
This card is the Rewards Visa, which is offered on Quicken’s website to new users with no annual fee. The Plus doesn’t appear on Quicken’s site at all, so it is either no longer offered to new users, or it’s offered as an upgrade to existing users.
With the standard Rewards Visa, a plane ticket of up to $500 can be redeemed for 35,000 points, or a reward rate of 1.4%. As you point out, this is higher than 1%, but it’s also a sliding scale. If you buy a $326 plane ticket, it still requires 35,000 points, and if you buy a $501 plane ticket, it requires 55,000 points, both of which are less than 1%.
This sliding scale effect, combined with the fact that most other redemption options, like gift cards and statement credits, redeem for 1%, is why we decided to use a 1% for the average user.
