News that Capital One has struck a deal to buy Discover shook up the normally quiet Presidents Day banking holiday on Monday, teeing up the possibility of making Capital One the nation’s largest credit card issuer.
The Wall Street Journal reported the potential merger on Monday, followed by other outlets like Bloomberg and the New York Times. Capital One then released a statement confirming the planned acquisition.
Capital One Financial Corp., based in McLean, Virginia, is the nation’s ninth-largest bank by total assets, with 259 physical branch locations, 55 “Capital One Cafes” across the country and a major online banking operation. Discover Financial, based in Riverwoods, Illinois, is a mostly online bank with a single physical branch in Delaware. The all-stock deal is valued at $35.3 billion.
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Capital One has cards for earning rewards and cards for building credit. Some even do both.
Is Discover on board?
Michael Rhodes, CEO and president of Discover, touted the deal in Capital One’s press release: “The transaction with Capital One brings together two strong brands with enhanced ability to accelerate growth and maximizes value for our shareholders, enabling them to participate in the tremendous upside of the combined company.”
What happens next?
Bank mergers must be approved by bank regulators and by shareholders of each company. If the deal goes through, Capital One estimates that it will close in late 2024 or early 2025.
What would it mean for customers?
During the approval process, little is expected to change as the companies continue to operate independently. Even if the deal is approved, though, current customers may see little effect.
“I think it’s not going to be a big change for credit card customers,” says David Robertson, editor and owner of the Nilson Report, a payment card industry trade journal. Discover cards, he says, are primarily cash-back cards, while Capital One offers a variety of rewards cards. A merger, Robinson says, “might allow for better rewards programs for both companies.”
While the Wall Street Journal reported that Capital One plans to keep the Discover name on at least some cards, details have not been confirmed by either company. Likewise, there is no detail yet on how banking customers will be affected.
Why merge?
Item no. 1: Discover’s payment network.
Transactions on Capital One cards are processed over the Visa and Mastercard payment networks. Discover, however, operates its own network, making it both a card issuer and a payment processor, similar to American Express. Robertson says acquiring a payment network and building direct relationships with more merchants is likely a driving factor in Capital One’s acquisition, which puts a 26.9% premium on Discover’s Feb. 16 closing stock price.
”From Capital One’s founding days, we set out to build a payments and banking company powered by modern technology,” Richard Fairbank, founder and CEO of Capital One, said in the news release. “Our acquisition of Discover is a singular opportunity to bring together two very successful companies with complementary capabilities and franchises, and to build a payments network that can compete with the largest payments networks and payments companies.”
In addition, Robertson notes, there is not a great deal of overlap between the two banks’ customer bases. “One would assume that everyone that has a Discover Card also has a Visa or MasterCard,” he says. “Capital One may get access to that spending.”
Capital One is the fourth largest credit card issuer in the United States by loan volume; Discover is ranked sixth, according to Nilson Report data. Combined, they would nudge ahead of Chase to become the largest card issuer.
Sheer economy of scale is another factor. “Should [the merger] occur, Capital One would be the largest credit card issuer” as measured by outstanding debt, says Robertson.
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Capital One’s $35.3 billion all-stock deal to purchase Discover could make it the largest credit card issuer in the country, in addition to expanding both its digital banking presence and Discover’s global payment network.
The deal arrives as consumers are struggling to keep up with inflated prices — and they’re carrying more credit card debt than before the pandemic. A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, released on Feb. 6, found that Americans held a collective $1.129 trillion in credit card debt at the end of 2023. By comparison, by the end of 2019, Americans held $930 billion in credit card debt.
The report also showed that borrowers are having trouble repaying their debt. Serious delinquencies among credit card borrowers rose 6.36% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with a 4.01% increase at the same time in 2022. Both Capital One and Discover show an increase in delinquency rates, but Discover’s fourth-quarter results reported a larger spike in consumer card delinquencies than Capital One’s.
After a Capital One call for investors on Tuesday morning, the markets responded: Discover’s stock rose while Capital One shares dipped slightly.
In the call, Capital One indicated it expects the deal to be complete by the end of 2024 or early 2025 — that is, if federal regulators allow it. The acquisition is expected to face close scrutiny in the coming year.
Here’s what you need to know about Capital One’s Discover acquisition.
See the best Capital One cards
Capital One has cards for earning rewards and cards for building credit. Some even do both.
1. Capital One would be a formidable credit cards competitor
The deal opens the door for Capital One to become the nation’s largest credit card issuer by outstanding debt, outpacing JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, according to the payment industry trade journal the Nilson Report. The company will remain based in McLean, Virginia, while maintaining a significant presence in Chicago, where Discover is based.
In the call with investors on Tuesday, Richard Fairbank, CEO and chairman of Capital One, touted the benefits of acquiring Discover’s global payment network, which will allow Capital One to more directly deal with merchants as opposed to a network intermediary. The more merchants Capital One can reach, the more money it stands to make over time.
While Capital One still holds contracts with Visa and Mastercard for many of its credit products, it will move at least some of its cards onto the Discover network over time, thus keeping a larger slice of the lucrative merchant fees its customers generate.
By owning a payment network, Capital One is poised to compete with its most direct competitor, American Express, and reduce its dependency on the two biggest players in global payments: Visa and Mastercard.
Fairbank says the company is also hoping to expand Discover’s network deeper into the global market.
2. Capital One hopes to expand its digital banking reach
Capital One is the ninth-largest bank in the U.S. with both physical branches and an online presence. Meanwhile, Discover’s banking presence is overwhelmingly online. But both are credit card-first, banking-second companies. The acquisition won’t change that, but it will enable Capital One to expand further into banking.
The deal would accelerate Capital One’s banking business by allowing the company to tap in to Discover’s network for banks. In the call with investors, Fairbank said Capital One plans to move its debit card business over to the Discover Signature debit network to help Discover compete with the other three networks.
Fairbank said that branding for Discover’s banking network would remain Discover. “Capital One as the network might not be as ideal a thing for other banks to choose as the Discover brand,” he said.
3. Discover would remain its own brand
Discover will remain its own brand in the combined company. In the investor call, Fairbank said Capital One will keep Discover’s branding and continue to market it. “Over time, customers would understand this is part of Capital One,” he said.
Fairbank indicated that it was unrealistic to convert the Discover brand into Capital One. “Think about all those stickers that are out there at every point of sale and all the real estate that’s now on every online checkout page and so on,” he said. “It would be a really big lift to convert that to the Capital One brand.”
Fairbank noted that while Discover is accepted nearly universally in the U.S., it has an image problem that Capital One hopes to change. He said, “Our research confirms that customers are very satisfied with acceptance, but the perception of acceptance among noncustomers lags the reality.”
Fairbank says Capital One plans to move some of its credit card volume to Discover’s network in order “to enhance its scale.” He also said the company “will lean hard into further building the brand and the perceived acceptance of the credit card network here in the United States.”
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4. The deal faces regulatory hurdles
Consumers won’t see any changes from the acquisition anytime soon. That’s because the deal won’t be complete until shareholders and regulators approve it.
The Justice Department, banking regulators and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are likely to scrutinize the proposed deal. The Biden Administration has toughened its approach to mergers and acquisitions, including those still underway like the Kroger and Albertsons grocery chain merger and Alaska Airlines’ takeover of Hawaiian Airlines. And last month, a federal judge blocked JetBlue’s buyout of Spirit Airlines under antitrust laws.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has also said it plans to institute a more complex, and ultimately slower, process for bank acquisitions. Capital One’s Discover proposal faces standard regulatory procedures, so it’s unclear whether these stricter requirements would apply to this acquisition.
Fairbank noted in the call with investors that both Capital One and Discover will be filing approval applications with the federal government in the next few months and said “we believe that we are well-positioned for approval.”
5. The bigger the company, the higher the interest rates
Credit card interest rates are now much higher than in recent years, mirroring the broader rate environment. The average APR among credit cards that incurred interest was 22.75% in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
When it comes to interest rate offers, bigger companies aren’t always better, at least not for consumers. An analysis of 2023 credit card interest rate data by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, released on Feb. 16, found that the largest credit card issuers offer high interest rates — a maximum APR over 30% among nearly half of those issuers.
The report found a broad disparity between the median APRs on credit cards offered by large and small financial institutions based on credit scores. The biggest difference is among customers with good credit scores (620 to 719 in this report): Large card issuers offer a median APR of 28.2% — a difference of 10.02 percentage points compared with the median APR offered by smaller card issuers.
Big companies are also more likely to include an annual fee, and those fees are 70% higher than at small banks and credit unions, according to the CFPB report.
Still, big companies do tend to offer more generous rewards and discounts, like cash back and travel points, with their credit cards compared with small institutions. But the best perks are offered to the wealthiest customers, who make the most money through frequent and larger spending at merchants.
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The Minnesota-based airline Sun Country has its own credit card for frequent fliers of the budget carrier. The Sun Country Visa credit card, issued by First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO), has an annual fee but also some perks that may make the card a worthwhile investment. Certainly, this card could make sense for people who fly Sun Country’s relatively limited routes: The airline is in more than 100 airports across the U.S., Mexico, Central America, Canada and the Caribbean.
But if Sun Country airline doesn’t satisfy your travel plans, then the Sun Country credit card won’t do much for you, either. In that case, a general travel card or another airline card would be a better fit.
1. It has an annual fee
You’ll pay $69 a year for the Sun Country credit card, placing it within the mid-tier travel card category. Compared with similar cards, the Sun Country falls a little short in terms of value. For example, for a slightly higher annual fee, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card offers 5x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 2x miles on everything else, a $100 credit for Global Entry or PreCheck every four years, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to transfer miles to Capital One’s 15 travel partners.
2. Perks can help offset the fee
Sun Country cardholders get the following benefits, some of which can help recoup some of the annual fee:
Priority boarding on Sun Country flights every time you fly.
One free premium drink per flight.
50% off seat selections and first checked bag for you and your travel companions when traveling on the same itinerary. Seat selections and bag fees must be prepurchased to receive the discount.
The ability to get 10,000 bonus points if you spend at least $10,000 over 12 consecutive billing cycles beginning with the account anniversary. Points are worth 1 cent each, so 10,000 bonus points are worth $100 toward Sun Country flights.
3. It has a decent sign-up bonus
New Sun Country Visa cardholders can get 25,000 points if they spend at least $1,000 in the first three billing cycles after account opening. Because 1 point is worth 1 cent, the sign-up bonus is worth $250. Note that the bonus can only be redeemed toward more Sun Country flights.
The Sun Country card’s welcome offer is fine, but it’s hardly the best. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, widely recognized as the gold standard among mid-tier travel cards, has a $95 annual fee, but the sign-up bonus is far superior to the Sun Country card’s. New Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card holders get the following welcome offer: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
4. The card pairs well with Sun Country’s loyalty program
The Sun Country card earns the most points on Sun Country bookings, but it has some good everyday spending categories, too. The card earns:
Unlimited 3 points for each $1 on Sun Country purchases.
Unlimited 2 points for each $1 on gas and groceries. (Wholesale clubs are ineligible.)
Unlimited 1 point for each $1 on everything else.
Even better, rewards earned with the credit card are stackable with Sun Country’s loyalty program, Sun Country Rewards. Members of the Sun Country Rewards Program get:
2 points for every $1 spent directly with Sun Country, either online at suncountry.com or by calling Sun Country Reservations.
1 point for every $1 spent on bookings made through a travel agent or other travel websites.
That means if you have the Sun Country credit card and are enrolled in the Sun Country Rewards Program, which you can do at www.suncountry.com, you’ll earn 5 points per $1 on Sun Country purchases.
Rewards don’t expire as long as the account is open and in good standing.
5. Redemption is limited
Points earned with the Sun Country card are only redeemable for travel booked directly with Sun Country including flights, seats, checked bags and vacation packages. Again, consider a general travel card or another airline card if you want more redemption options.
It’s no wonder that Warren Buffett’s stock picks are of interest to investors. Buffett, after all, is widely considered the most successful investor in modern history.
And since he primarily invests through his publicly traded holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), information about Buffett’s stock purchases, sales and holdings — or more accurately, Berkshire Hathaway’s purchases, sales and holdings — is available for free, online.
The only catch is that you have to dig through Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings to find it. Below, we’ve assembled a one-stop guide to Warren Buffett stocks — the companies Berkshire Hathaway has recently invested in or disinvested in, and the companies it’s currently holding.
Jump tolearn:
Who is Warren Buffett?
Warren Buffett is a professional investor and the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate that invests in (and sometimes acquires) undervalued companies.
Born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett worked as a stockbroker in his early years. One of his early-career mentors was Benjamin Graham, an investment manager who pioneered the bargain-hunting approach to stock selection known as value investing.
When Buffett started his own investment partnership in 1956, he had $174,000 to his name
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Chapter 22. Accessed Feb 6, 2024.
. Today, he’s worth more than $120 billion and is the seventh-richest person alive, largely thanks to the value investing strategies he learned from Graham .
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What is Berkshire Hathaway?
Berkshire Hathaway is Buffett’s investment company. It’s the full owner of many recognizable companies, including GEICO and Fruit of the Loom. Berkshire is also a major shareholder in many other publicly-traded companies, such as Apple (AAPL).
Berkshire Hathaway formed in 1955 through the merger of two textile companies founded in the 19th century. Buffett began buying shares in the company in 1962, believing that it was undervalued, and took full control of the company in 1965. He subsequently used it as a holding company for his other investments — first in the insurance industry, then in many others.
Berkshire has been publicly-traded since its pre-Buffett era, so it’s required to file quarterly reports with the SEC, detailing its investment activities. As a result, Buffett’s investment decisions have been a matter of public record for most of his career. Its next quarterly report is due on Feb. 26, 2024.
Berkshire Hathaway shares trade in two classes. The Class A shares have never undergone a stock split in their many decades of growth. As a result, they’re some of the highest-priced shares in the world, trading for just under $600,000 each as of Feb. 2024. That made them difficult to access for many investors before online brokers began offering fractional shares.
To mitigate this, the company also offers Class B shares that trade at a much more reasonable price — slightly less than $400 as of Feb. 2024.
In 1965, Buffett began writing an annual letter to Berkshire shareholders in which he explains the rationale behind Berkshire’s investment decisions. Those letters, along with Berkshire’s quarterly SEC filings, are the sources for much of the information in this article.
Which stocks is Warren Buffett buying?
In the most recent quarter, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed new investments in four different stocks, and they’re listed below in order of purchase value. However, two of these stocks are closely related to each other. The company did not add to any of its preexisting holdings this quarter.
Company name and symbol
Value of position
Liberty Live Group — Series C (LLYVK)
New portfolio addition. Liberty Live Group is a division of Liberty Media Corp. consisting of its investments in Live Nation (LYV).
Liberty Live Group — Series A (LLYVA)
New portfolio addition.
Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI)
New portfolio addition.
Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc. — Series C (BATRK)
New portfolio addition.
Source: 13F.info. Data is current as of Feb. 6, 2024 and for informational purposes only.
It’s worth clarifying some potential points of confusion here: Liberty Media Corp. is itself a holding company, much like Berkshire Hathaway. It has few operations of its own, and primarily makes money by investing in other companies.
Liberty is split into multiple divisions, each of which mainly consists of an investment interest in a specific company. Liberty Live Group, for example, consists of shares of Live Nation and a few other minor investments.
Each of Liberty’s divisions has also issued several different “series” of stock, and each of these series trades separately under a different ticker symbol. Berkshire bought two different stock series of Liberty Live Group last quarter.
Berkshire also bought two different series of a different Liberty division, Liberty SiriusXM Group (LSXMA and LSXMK), but it did so after selling the same number of shares of each series — meaning that its net share count for its two Liberty SiriusXM Group series did not change. Those investment positions are detailed in the “holdings” table below.
Atlanta Braves Holdings, another new Berkshire Hathaway purchase last quarter, also uses a multiple-series trading structure, although Berkshire only bought one series of that stock.
Which stocks is Warren Buffett selling?
Berkshire Hathaway sold all of its shares in seven companies last quarter, and reduced its share count for another six stocks. They’re listed below in order of percentage sold and value sold.
Company name and symbol
Value sold
Percentage of shares sold
Activision Blizzard (ATVI)
General Motors (GM)
Celanese Corp. (CE)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Mondelez International (MDLZ)
United Parcel Service (UPS)
Globe Life (GL)
Markel Corp. (MKL)
HP Inc. (HPQ)
Chevron Corp. (CVX)
Aon plc (AON)
Source: 13F.info. Data is current as of Feb. 6, 2024 and for informational purposes only.
What are Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings?
After those purchases and sales, Berkshire Hathaway has a total of 45 stocks in its portfolio. They’re listed below in order of the dollar value of Berkshire’s holdings.
Company name and symbol
Bank of America (BAC)
American Express (AXP)
Coca-Cola Co. (KO)
Chevron Corp. (CVX)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its share count by 10%.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY)
Kraft Heinz (KHC)
Moody’s Corp. (MCO)
Davita Inc. (DVA)
HP Inc. (HPQ)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its share count by 15%.
VeriSign Inc. (VRSN)
Citigroup Inc. (C)
Kroger Co. (KR)
Visa Inc. (V)
Charter Communications (CHTR)
Mastercard Inc. (MA)
Aon plc (AON)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its share count by 5%.
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its share count by 5%.
Capital One (COF)
Paramount Global (PARA)
Liberty SiriusXM Group — Series C (LSXMK)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway sold its previous position of 43M shares for $1.4B, but then bought the same number of shares for $1.1B, for a net decrease of $314M and zero shares. Liberty SiriusXM Group is a division of Liberty Media Corp. consisting of Liberty’s investments in SiriusXM (SIRI).
Snowflake Inc. (SNOW)
Nu Holdings (NU)
Ally Financial (ALLY)
T-Mobile US (TMUS)
D.R. Horton (DHI)
Liberty SiriusXM Group — Series A (LSXMA)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway sold its previous position of 20M shares for $663M, but then bought the same number of shares for $514M, for a net decrease of $149M and zero shares.
Liberty Formula One Group — Series C (FWONK)
Liberty Formula One Group is a division of Liberty Media Corp. consisting of Liberty’s stake in F1 and Quint, along with several other minor investments.
Floor & Decor (FND)
Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (LPX)
Liberty Live Group — Series C (LLYVK)
New portfolio addition.
Markel Corp. (MKL)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its share count by 66%.
Liberty Live Group — Series A (LLYVA)
New portfolio addition.
StoneCo Ltd. (STNE)
Globe Life (GL)
Last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its share count by 67%.
NVR Inc. (NVR)
Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI)
New portfolio addition.
Diageo plc (DEO)
Liberty Latin America — Class A (LILA)
Liberty Latin America is a division of Liberty Media Corp. that invests in telecommunications companies throughout Latin America and the Carribean.
Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO)
S&P 500 index fund.
S&P 500 index fund.
Jeffries Financial Group (JEF)
Lennar Corp. — Class B (LEN)
Liberty Latin America — Class C (LILAK)
Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc. — Series C (BATRK)
New portfolio addition.
Source: 13F.info. Data is current as of Feb. 6, 2024 and for informational purposes only.
Should you trade like Warren Buffett?
That depends on what you mean by “trading like Warren Buffett.” There’s a big difference between learning from Buffett’s methods and literally copying his trades.
Learning to invest like Warren Buffett
Almost anyone can imitate Buffett’s methodology, which is rooted in value investing. Value investors look for undervalued stocks whose price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, or other valuation ratios, are lower than those of their peers (implying that these stocks are trading at a discount to their true value).
Buffett famously remarked in his 1989 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that “it’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price
.”
History seems to vindicate Buffett’s bargain-hunting approach — especially during periods of high interest rates. A 2020 paper by economists at Dartmouth College and the University of Chicago compared value stock returns with benchmark stock market returns between 1963 and 2019.
The study authors stopped short of proving a causal relationship between interest rates and value stock returns. But they did find that value stocks had a significant advantage over the market as a whole during the first half of the study period, 1963 to 1991, when the federal funds rate was higher than its long-term average
. The federal funds rate is also above-average now.
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Buffett is also an advocate for long-term investments. As he wrote in his 1988 letter to shareholders: “When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever. We are just the opposite of those who hurry to sell and book profits when companies perform well but who tenaciously hang on to businesses that disappoint
.”
Copying Warren Buffett’s trades
Buffett may be a good role model for investors, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to replicate his exact investment decisions.
“Copy trading,” as this practice is known, can be risky. The best investments for you will depend on your circumstances and goals, and may not be the same as the best investments for a famous billionaire.
Researchers are skeptical about the efficacy of copy trading. A 2020 paper published in the Management Science journal found that “copy trading leads to excessive risk taking” among investors
.
To summarize, it’s not a bad idea for investors to familiarize themselves with Buffett’s buy-and-hold value investing philosophy. But if you’re buying the exact same stocks as him, just because he did, you may be missing the point of his methods.
Neither the author nor editor owned shares in the aforementioned investments at the time of publication.
The peer-to-peer payment network Zelle offers free and almost instant transfers between bank accounts at different U.S. banking institutions. Launched in 2017, Zelle’s network has grown to include more than 2,000 participating banks and credit unions. Many, but not all, bank customers can find Zelle featured in their bank’s mobile app.
Using a bank that offers Zelle in its app has perks: There’s no extra app to download, and your bank may have higher transfer amount limits than what Zelle’s app allows.
Skip down to our lists to see if your bank uses Zelle.
Quick facts about Zelle
Zelle is primarily used to send, request or receive funds with friends and others you trust.
Zelle transfers can be delivered within minutes and generally are free.
Customers at banks, credit unions or neobanks that don’t offer Zelle can access Zelle’s standalone app, though transfer amount limits may differ.
SoFi Checking and Savings
Min. balance for APY
$0
CIT Bank Platinum Savings
Min. balance for APY
$5,000
BMO Alto Online Savings Account
Min. balance for APY
$0
Frequently asked questions
Are Zelle transfers free to send and receive?
Typically, yes. More than 99% of checking accounts linked to Zelle don’t charge a fee, according to a 2023 Zelle survey of financial institutions that offer Zelle.
How much can I send or receive through Zelle at a non-participating bank?
If your bank doesn’t offer Zelle, you can send up to $500 weekly and receive up to $5,000 in Zelle’s app. There’s no ability to request different limits. You can have higher limits at a bank in Zelle’s network, though it’s up to the bank.
What are some notable banks and credit unions that don’t use Zelle directly?
Some notable financial institutions that NerdWallet has reviewed and that don’t participate directly in the Zelle network include Alliant Credit Union, American Express, Barclays, Connexus Credit Union, LendingClub Bank, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, SoFi and Synchrony Bank. In addition, nonbank fintech apps (or neobanks) such as Chime, Current and Greenwood aren’t in Zelle’s network.
Can the sender and recipient be at banks where neither offers Zelle?
No. Unfortunately, either the sender or recipient must belong to a bank or credit union that offers Zelle for a transfer to work. The person who doesn’t have Zelle directly can download the Zelle app and enroll with a Visa or Mastercard debit card.
What are transfer services like Zelle?
Peer-to-peer transfer apps such as Venmo and Cash App have the same ability as Zelle to transfer money fast to friends and family for free. However, unlike Zelle, they put any money you receive into an in-app balance. The process to withdraw money to a linked bank account is free but usually takes several days, or you can withdraw within minutes for a fee. Learn more about peer-to-peer payment services.
In addition, banks and credit unions are gradually adopting FedNow, a new real-time transfer service run by the Federal Reserve.
Who owns Zelle?
Zelle is owned by Early Warning Services, a financial tech firm and consumer reporting agency that is co-owned by seven of the largest U.S. banks: Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.
Is Zelle safe?
Zelle’s parent company has said that more than 99.9% of payments sent don’t have reports of fraud or scam, according to a 2022 press release. However, there is still a chance you can be contacted by fraudsters who ask you to send money via Zelle.
Unlike credit card and debit card purchases, a Zelle transfer can’t be canceled or reversed once someone receives it, which is also the standard practice for wire transfers and transfers on a real-time network such as FedNow and RTP. Zelle provides customer support and potential reimbursement in cases when people get scammed.
🤓Nerdy Tip
Nearly instant transfers between your accounts: When you enroll two accounts at two different banks with Zelle, you can transfer money between banks faster than typical ACH transfers. Standard bank-to-bank transfers can still take multiple days.
12 online banks that use Zelle
We considered online banks with strong account offerings that participate in Zelle’s network. Click each bank name to read our review:
17 traditional banks that use Zelle
We considered the largest U.S. banks as well as various regional banks that we’ve reviewed. Click each bank name to read our review.
12 credit unions that use Zelle
We considered credit unions we’ve reviewed and that stand out due to their size or services. Some credit unions have geographic or other membership restrictions. Click each credit union name to read our review:
Don’t see your bank or credit union? See the full list of financial institutions in Zelle’s network on Zelle’s website.
Did you know…
Zelle transfers are not wire transfers, which use a separate network. Both can provide funds delivery within minutes, but wires tend to have high fees and are intended for large amounts, such as a home purchase. Zelle transfers are typically free and can be for various reasons and amounts (up to a limit).
Having a credit card unexpectedly declined can be frustrating and embarrassing. Often when this happens, the card has become restricted by the card issuer, usually temporarily. This restriction suspends your account, freezing your ability to make purchases.
If your Capital One card is restricted, you should first contact the bank to find out why. Depending on the reason, you may be able to use your card again in a matter of minutes.
Here’s what to know if your Capital One card has been suspended.
Stop fraud in its tracks
With a NerdWallet account, you can see all of your credit card activity in one place and easily access your credit report to spot any red flags quickly.
Why is your Capital One card suspended?
If your credit card gets declined and you aren’t sure why, start by calling Capital One at the number on the back of your card.
The primary reasons why your card may have been suspended include:
New card: If you’ve recently opened the account, or just received a new card in the mail, you may have forgotten to activate the card. It’s a simple fix — call the number on your card and follow the steps to activate it.
Fraud alert: Card issuers use algorithms to identify trends in your spending habits. You might receive a fraud alert if the system sees a spending irregularity, such as a big purchase, using your card in a new location or buying something from a foreign website. Fraud alerts are generally easy to clear and often can be done in real-time via text message or the card’s app. If your card is new or you’ve recently received a replacement card, you may need to take it slow with charges, at least at first. Rapid spending on a newly issued card can look like irresponsible credit management or fraud and lead to a restriction on your account.
Expired card: Be sure to check your card’s expiration date. It’s easy to overlook, and if your card is expired, transactions won’t get processed. Contact your issuer for a new card, and if you need a replacement fast, see if it has an option to expedite the new card.
Late payment(s): If you’ve missed one or multiple payments, your card issuer may suspend your ability to make new purchases until your account is brought up to date. Contact your issuer to see what exactly you owe and what it will require to clear the suspension.
Exceeding your credit limit:Your card may get declined if you attempt a charge beyond your credit limit. If you need more credit temporarily, you may be able to opt-in to over-limit purchases with Capital One. There’s no fee (though other issuers may charge a fee), and it will be up to the bank’s discretion whether to permit additional charges. If it declines your request, you’ll have to pay down the card’s balance to regain access to your existing credit line.
How to deal with a suspended credit card
If your Capital One card is suspended for a fraud alert, you may be able to clear the restriction by replying to an automatic verification text message or email sent by Capital One.
If your account is restricted due to another reason, you’ll likely have to call Capital One to figure out what the issue is. Be sure to ask why your account was restricted and what steps are required to clear the suspension. You may also want to ask Capital One what you can do to avoid future restrictions.
Will a suspended credit card impact your credit score?
Your credit score isn’t directly impacted by a suspended card, but the underlying cause of the suspension may adversely affect your credit score. A fraud alert won’t hurt your score. However, if you miss a payment or have a high credit utilization ratio, your credit score may be negatively impacted.
How can you avoid a credit card suspension?
Responsible credit management will help you appear as a lower risk to Capital One (or any card issuer). This is the easiest way to avoid a credit card restriction.
But things happen. If late payments are a problem, schedule an auto-payment to at least cover the minimum required amount each month to prevent your account from becoming delinquent. If you’re perpetually running up against your credit limit while otherwise making on-time payments, request a credit line increase to have more flexibility with your available credit.
If you know you’ll be traveling or making a large purchase, preemptively contacting Capital One with your plans can be a good way to avoid a potentially frustrating fraud alert and card suspension.
When you rent a car during your travels, you usually aren’t thinking about what happens if you crash your car. that is, until the agent at the rental car desk paints that worst-case scenario during their collision damage waiver pitch.
Should you pay extra to cover your car in the case of an accident? Not if you hold the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
If you are involved in a fender bender, you can rely on your credit card coverage to pay for damage to your rental car without making a claim against your personal auto insurance.
Although it’s a great idea to use your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to book your rental cars, the auto rental collision damage waiver benefit on the card doesn’t cover everything or every trip.
Here’s what you need to know about what the policy covers and how to file a claim.
How the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card rental car insurance works
Every credit card car rental insurance requires you to use the card for your rental transaction and decline the car rental company’s collision damage waiver option. The car rental coverage provided by the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is no different.
If you want your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card car rental insurance to cover your rental car, here’s what you must do:
You must use your Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to reserve and pay for your entire rental car transaction.
You must decline the car rental company’s collision damage waiver provisions.
Simply being a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card member isn’t enough — you must use the card to cover your rental transaction and decline the collision damage waiver offered by the rental counter.
Be aware that some rates include collision damage waiver insurance. If you book using one of these rates, you won’t be covered by the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card car rental insurance on that rental.
What is covered?
The most important thing to understand about Capital One’s car rental insurance is what it covers. It covers only the following types of losses:
Damage to a rental car caused by a collision.
Loss of a rental car due to theft.
While your card’s insurance coverage will reimburse you for damage to your rental car, an accident can also cause damage to another driver’s vehicle or result in bodily injury.
If you injure someone (including yourself) in an accident or if you damage someone else’s vehicle, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card car rental insurance won’t cover these losses. Here are some items that are not covered by Capital One’s rental car insurance.
Personal liability.
Loss or theft of personal belongings.
Bodily injuries of any kind to anyone.
Damage to anything other than the rental vehicle.
Wear and tear or mechanical breakdowns.
Most likely, you’ll want travel insurance or personal auto insurance to shield yourself from liability, in case you are involved in an accident that damages someone else’s car or causes an injury.
Finally, Capital One car rental insurance covers rental periods of only 15 or fewer consecutive days within your country of residence. Rentals outside your country of residence are covered up to 31 consecutive days.
Notable exclusions
Certain vehicles
Capital One car rental insurance is meant to cover rentals of non-luxury passenger vehicles. The policy will pay only for the actual cash value of cars with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of up to $75,000 when new, so extremely expensive luxury cars won’t be covered.
If you’re renting a Toyota Corolla, you’re going to be covered. If you want to drive an Aston Martin, you’ll need to find other insurance. Here are some of the types of automobiles that are excluded:
Expensive automobiles with an MSRP of over $75,000 when new.
Antique vehicles that are over 20 years old or have not been manufactured for 10 years.
Vans, other than those designed for small-group transportation and seat up to nine people.
Trucks and vehicles with an open cargo bed.
Two-wheeled vehicles like mopeds, motorcycles and motorbikes.
Limousines.
Recreational vehicles.
Certain destinations
Most car rental insurance policies provided by credit cards exclude certain countries from coverage. Your
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card car rental insurance does not cover rentals in Israel, Jamaica, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.
Who is covered?
Capital One provides rental car damage and theft coverage only to you, the person whose name is embossed on your eligibleCapital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. You must reserve, pick up and pay for the rental car and be listed as the primary driver.
Additional drivers on the rental car are covered by your Capital One car rental insurance, but you (the cardholder) must be the primary renter of the car.
How to file a claim
If you have an accident or your rental car is stolen, you will need to call the car rental benefit administrator to report the incident as soon as possible, regardless of your liability.
Within the U.S., call 800-825-4062. If you’re traveling outside the U.S., you can make a collect call to 804-965-8071. You can also initiate your claim online at https://www.eclaimsline.com/.
🤓Nerdy Tip
Be sure to submit your claim form within 90 days of the date of theft or damage or your claim may be denied. Submit the claim form even if you don’t yet have access to all other requested information.
To prepare to submit your claim, you’ll want to collect documentation that will be needed to process your claim. Here’s what you should collect and be prepared to submit to the benefit administrator.
The accident report form provided by the rental company.
A copy of the front and back of the initial and final rental agreements.
A copy of repair estimates and an itemized repair bill.
At least two photographs of the vehicle.
A police report, if one can be obtained.
A copy of any demand letter you receive from the car rental agency.
You’ll also need to fill out a claim form and submit the above documentation, plus a copy of your credit card billing statement including the rental charge. The benefit administrator may also request additional documentation to validate your claim.
Your claim will usually be processed within 15 days after the benefit administrator has received all requested documentation.
Capital One Venture X rental car insurance recapped
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers car rental insurance that covers damage to or theft of your rental vehicle when you decline the car rental company’s collision damage waiver insurance and charge the entire rental transaction to your credit card.
The coverage does not include liability coverage of any kind or cover trips longer than 15 days in your country of residence or 31 days abroad. Be sure to check your card’s Guide to Benefits for coverage details.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024, including those best for:
Capital One is offering a signup bonus of up to $3,000 signup bonus on their business Spark Cash Plus card, as follows:
$1,500 once you spend $20,000 in the first 3 months.
An additional $1,500 once you spend $100,000 in the first 6 months.
Card Details
$150 annual fee not waived
Card earns 2% cash back on all purchases
Earn an annual $200 cash bonus every year you spend $200,000 or more
Card earns cashback; if you have a different points-earning Capital One card (such as the Venture or Spark Miles), you’ll be able to transfer over the cash back into miles which could be more valuable
Our Verdict
Both of these tiers might make sense for someone with a lot of unbonused spend. The lower tier is a really nice deal for cashback – you’ll get 9.5% cashback on $20,000 in spend. This is better than prior offers we’ve seen. Personally I can’t do the $100k tier, but I’m going to try getting approved and doing the $20k spend tier. (In the past I haven’t had great luck getting approved with Capital One. 🙁 )
Another option is a newly launched similar bonus on the Venture X Business card.
Remember, Capital One pulls all 3 credit bureaus. Unlike most Capital One business cards, Spark Cash cards do not report the statement balances to the personal bureaus; see these Things to Know About Capital One Credit Cards before applying. We’ll add this to our List of Best Credit Card Signup Bonuses.
For a limited time, signup for the Capital One Venture X Business card and earn up to 300,000 bonus miles:
150,000 miles once you spend $20,000 in the first 3 months.
An additional 150,000 miles once you spend $100,000 in the first 6 months.
Card Details
Annual fee of $395
Card earns at the following rates:
10x miles on hotels and car rentals when booking through Capital One’s travel portal
5x miles on flights when booking through Capital One’s travel portal
2x miles on all other purchases
10,000 miles anniversary bonus
$300 annual travel credit for bookings through Capital One’s travel portal
Lounge access:
Priority pass lounge access
Capital one lounge access
$100 TSA PreCheck or Global Entry credit every 4 years
Existing Spark cardholders can apply for Spark Travel Elite, Spark Cash Plus cardholders cannot apply for Spark Travel Elite
Our Verdict
The lower tier can end up being a great deal, and it’s better than the prior offer of 150k points with $30k spend. I’m considering signing up and doing the $20k spend tier. However, in the past I haven’t had great luck getting approved with Capital One. Another option is a newly launched similar bonus on the Spark Cash Plus business card.
Remember, Capital One pulls all 3 credit bureaus. Unlike most Capital One business cards, Spark Cash cards do not report the statement balances to the personal bureaus; see these Things to Know About Capital One Credit Cards before applying. We’ll add this to our List of Best Credit Card Signup Bonuses.
The desire to get a good deal unites practically all travelers. Whether you’re looking for a cheap getaway or a luxury vacation, no one wants to spend more than necessary. When it comes to booking flights, travelers may naturally head to an airline’s website. However, that’s not always the best site to book flights.
Whether it’s taking advantage of credit card perks, earning bonus miles or saving money, the best flight booking site can vary depending on your situation and willingness to get creative. Let’s take a look at six of the best sites to book flights and when each is the best option.
The best flight booking sites
1. Google Flights
For ease, speed and features, Google Flights is arguably the best website for flight searches. Search results appear almost instantly. Filters let you narrow down to nonstop options, select a subset of airlines, limit by price or factor in the price of a bag. Similarly, you can use Google Flights filters to avoid certain airlines, multi-stop itineraries, long layovers, early flights or pretty much whatever you might want to avoid.
You can easily check flexible dates, and if you’re flexible on where you go you can use the Explore map to see prices for a variety of destinations for certain dates, a certain month or anytime in the next six months.
Google Flights partners with hundreds of airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs) to pull current flight prices. That way you don’t have to search each of these sites to be able to see the options. Once you select your preferred trip, Google Flights links you to the top booking options for actually booking your flight — including the airline itself and the best OTA booking options.
The downsides of Google Flights are few. One is the lack of Southwest flight prices. Although Southwest flight schedules will show in flight search results, Southwest flight prices aren’t available. That’s because Southwest chooses to publish flight prices only on its website.
Another downside is that Google Flights doesn’t always show the cheapest prices — particularly for international flights. That means it’s worth double-checking prices on another site before booking through Google Flights.
2. Kayak
Like Google Flights, Kayak searches hundreds of other websites and flight booking platforms to find the best deal. Kayak generally doesn’t let you book flights directly. However, one benefit of Kayak is the streamlined process. Rather than having to click through several pages to confirm your selection, clicking “view deal” on the results page can take you right to the cheapest booking option.
Also, some travelers may find Kayak’s flexible date search a bit easier to work with as you can see results from several days in the search results — eliminating the need to check each day’s results separately.
But perhaps the most important reason to use Kayak instead of Google Flights is that it can catch better deals. For example, we found a $550 round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Barcelona using Google Flights. Kayak found a way to lower that price to just $472 round-trip — at least once you scroll past an advertisement.
Note that Kayak manages other flight search sites — including Momondo and Cheapflights — so the results may be very similar between these sister sites.
3. Expedia
So far, we’ve focused on ease in flight searching, and that’s going to be enough for many travelers. However, now let’s add in some additional elements to consider when choosing the best flight booking site: earning rewards and saving by booking packages. Expedia excels at both of these.
Through the new One Key rewards program, travelers can earn 0.2% in OneKeyCash from flight bookings made through Expedia. That’s not much, but it can stack on top of the awards you earn from the airline and those that you earn on your credit card purchase.
Even better, you’ll earn credits toward One Key elite status by booking your flight through Expedia. As you climb up the tiers, you’ll unlock up to 20% savings on hotels, get hotel upgrades, priority support and even price drop protection.
Plus, Expedia boasts that travelers can “save up to 30%” when bundling a hotel with a flight booking — although actual discounts are likely to vary.
4. Capital One Travel
For many Capital One cardholders, Capital One Travel might just be the best flight booking site. Part of this is to take advantage of cardholder benefits. For example, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card holders earn 5x Capital One miles when booking flights through the Capital One Travel portal. Plus, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card holders get up to $300 off travel booked through the Capital One Travel portal each cardholder year.
Also, Capital One Travel can help you truly get the best price for your flight. Capital One partnered with travel data company Hopper to show suggestions about when it’s the best time to book.
Capital One backs up these recommendations with money. If you book a flight through Capital One Travel when Hopper recommends doing so, you’ll get up to a $50 credit toward future travel if the price drops within the next 10 days.
5. Kiwi
Would you be willing to book a trip as two separate tickets in order to save money? That’s the idea behind Kiwi. Instead of simply searching flights from your home airport to your destination, Kiwi checks all potential options to get between A and B. That could mean taking a bus or train from your home city to another to catch a flight to your destination. Or, Kiwi might pair a low-cost domestic flight with a cheap international flight from another city to lower your total cost.
For example, when we priced out a round-trip flight from Phoenix to Tokyo, the cheapest option when booked as one ticket cost $1,353 round-trip — and that’s with an overnight stay in Vancouver.
Pricing out the same itinerary and dates through Kiwi drops the price to just $789 round-trip. The secret? Booking this as two round-trip flights: One from Phoenix to Los Angeles on Frontier and a separate round-trip from Los Angeles to Tokyo on Zipair.
Keep in mind that there are risks with booking separate tickets to get where you want to go. If a delay or cancellation causes you to miss your connection, the second airline/bus/train company isn’t obligated to honor your ticket and rebook you on the next option. So make sure to factor in all of the risks of booking travel like this.
6. BookWithMatrix
ITA Matrix is a very powerful and ultra-customizable search platform for finding exactly the flight itinerary you want — whether that’s booking a longer layover, avoiding certain aircraft types or booking nerdy trips such as the Alaska Milk Run.
The catch: Travelers can’t actually book flights through ITA Matrix. And, unlike Google Flights, ITA Matrix doesn’t even link to the best flight booking site for that itinerary. Instead, travelers are left to attempt to re-create the same itinerary through another flight booking website — which can be hard in the case of certain complex itineraries.
Enter BookWithMatrix. Travelers can copy-paste their perfect itinerary from ITA Matrix into BookWithMatrix to get bookable links through the airline or select OTAs.
Alternatively, travelers have the option to install the PowerTools extension in Google Chrome. This extension adds booking links right on the ITA Matrix itinerary page, avoiding the need to browse to another page.
Final thoughts on the best flight booking site
There’s not a one-size-fits-all best website for booking flights. Instead, the best flight booking site for you is going to depend on how simple you want the process to be, whether you’re willing to get creative with your booking, and even which credit cards you have.
For most travelers, the simplicity of Google Flights is going to make it the best one-stop shop for searching and booking flights. However, it’s worth considering other options if you’re flying internationally, want to book a flight-and-hotel package or have a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024, including those best for: