I recently wrote a post called Comparing Credit Card Rewards: Chase, where I looked at the rewards available just for using your credit card.

I noticed that each card has a slightly different way of either allowing you to earn points or to redeem those points that you have earned.

Today I am going to look at the rewards program for my Capital One card. I use my credit cards for ALL my purchases since I do not carry a balance. This allows me to make the best use of my cards because I earn cash back or points that can be converted to cash or gift cards.

Capital One currently allows me to earn one point for every dollar spent and I think this is easier than some of those other cards where you get 2% on some items and 4% on others, but also run the risk of not earning ANY points because some purchases do not qualify for points. You have the following options to redeem your Capital One points:

-Travel

-Cash

-Other

–Travel: You can use your points as a credit towards previous purchases or you can redeem your points for credits towards new purchases. I do not travel enough to make use of this reward so I did not pay too much attention to it.

–Cash: You can apply your points as a credit eraser which will simply wipe out past purchases but again this was not a reward that really interested me.

–Other: You can redeem your points for merchandise, gift cards, event purchases or you can donate to charity. I was most interested in the cash back option because it seemed to make the most sense in my situation.

Cash back is redeemed at 200 points = $1 if you want a paper check or a direct deposit to your account. You also need to have a minimum of 5,000 points in order to do this and 5,000 points gives you a $25 check.

Your points are redeemed at a rate of 100 points = $1 when you are getting a gift card and you need a minimum of 2,000 points in order to redeem. This means you can get a $25 Walmart gift card for 2,500 points and that is my favorite card to get since I love Walmart so much!!!

As you can see these rewards are different from the way that Chase does it but I love the fact that I earn points for EVERY purchase and don’t have to worry about which purchases will qualify at what time. Just remember to keep up with the terms and conditions of your rewards so that you make the best use of your points.