We’ve touched upon this in some recent articles, and after thinking about it, I decided to write more. Banks are offering some great new products, enticing welcome bonuses, and increasing the value of their rewards currencies, but are also changing the rules of game. Don’t believe me? DoC sees Chase expanding the 5/24 rule…Reddit datapoints of denials at Chase, Bank of America, and others continue to pour in…
For those of you that see gloom and doom, don’t worry. The more things change, the more they stay the same. There will always be plenty of offers, you’ll just have to know where to look. For now, let’s focus on Capital One. Capital One has released a few great new welcome offers, celebrating their addition of 12 airline transfer partners to their miles currency. With new welcome offers, come new applications. And with this bank in particular, that means a lot of denials!
Here’s what you need to know before you apply for a Capital One card..
Capital One Pulls All Three Credit Bureaus
No typo. All three.
There’s a great offer out on the Venture card, but you’ll need three clean credit reports to get it!
Now, there’s some nuance to this. If you want to upgrade your game, you might have luck in freezing a bureau before applying. Many times, a person’s three reports will be different, because of which reports a particular bank likes to pull. Many banks have a favorite report (Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian) that they pull.
Reconsideration is a Nightmare…
If you get denied (well, when you get denied) by Capital One, you ask them to reconsider their decision, just like any bank. Here’s the catch though, they don’t really have an easy way to do this. Once you get your denial reason, you’ll have to call in and talk with someone, but they might transfer you around a few times to get you someone to help. As far as I’ve been able to find, there’s no formal “reconsideration” department at Capital One.
Then, when you finally get through to someone, they’ll likely pull ALL 3 CREDIT BUREAUS AGAIN. No, they won’t use the reports they pulled a few days ago, they’ll want new ones.
Slow Down There, Kid!
Capital One limits you to one card per 6 months. This won’t be an issue for many people, but with their great new offers, it’s something to keep in mind. Capital One’s portfolio currently includes 14 cards – 9 personal (1 secured option) and 5 business. Right now, this includes the following cards:
- Savor (read our rundown of the new card here)
- SavorOne
- Venture (great new welcome offer for $750 cashback or 56,250)
- VentureOne
- Quicksilver
- QuicksilverOne
- Platinum
- Journey
- Secured Mastercard
- Spark Cash (great new welcome offer for $2,000 back)
- Spark Cash Select
- Spark Miles (great new welcome offer for $2,000 cashback or 150,000 miles to transfer)
- Spark Miles Select
- Spark Classic
It’s hard enough to get one card from Capital One, let alone one new card every 6 months!
Business Card? Shmizness Card!
Capital One reports on your business cards. For any business card you open with Capital One, they’ll report the limit and utilization to the personal credit bureaus. Which means, they’re basically a glorified personal card! This has a few impacts for the cardholder. First, Capital One business cards likely will count towards your 5/24 status with Chase. Not great for folks looking to earn some major points.
Secondly, people often use business cards for short term high utilization needs. Obviously you don’t want high utilization to report to your credit history. If you have a business card from Capital One, you can’t use this loophole. If I’m making a large purchase, I’ll often use an American Express Business card for the high utilization, since that won’t ding my credit report.
American Express, for example, does not report your business cards to your personal credit history. If you open an AmEx Business card, you’ll have nothing but the original hard pull on your report (and sometimes not even that!).
Sorry Alec, not many of us keep the Capital One in our wallet…
They offer some great (but tough to get) products. Let me know in the comments if you’ve managed to get past Capital One’s strict approval rules!
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While they don’t have a formal 5/24 rule…do they tend to deny applications with too many (5+, 10+) recent cards or credit pulls?
Yes they definitely give a harder look on applicants who have applied for lots of cards
Conway’s question is the single most important for me and possibly many other people yet you didn’t touch upon it at all.
What’s the latest on their ‘5/24’ like rule?
Yes ,my credit score is over 800 and I was denied a Capital One card for too many inquiries in past 12 months
Is the one card per 6 months meaning one Capital one card, not all issuers?
My sister got the IHG card 2 months ago. Was denied venture card. Not over 5/24, high credit score, low utilization. She could not believe she was turned down but the recent IHG card was the reason.
I’m confused: by checking all 3 credit bureaus, does that mean it’ll increase your 5/24 status by THREE???!!! Vs just 1 with all other cards?
No – it will still only increase it by one. But every new card you open has a temporary ding on your credit score of 2-3 points, and Capital One will make that ding happen in all three bureaus.
Gotcha. Thanks so much for the explanation!
I received a snail mail offer in March for the Venture card offering 100,000 points for 5k spend with $95 fee waived first year and was approved. It was about 10 months since my last cc application.
My wife has the Savor Card. She added one for me so I could use it the higher tier points. Does this count as a card for me as well?
If you’re an authorized user on your wife’s card, that does NOT count as a card for you. If you do end up applying for your own card, thanks in advance if you use our links when you do https://www.pointswithacrew.com/go/cc/travel