Capital One Venture Card Now With 40,000 Mile Bonus ($400 Statement Credit/Giftcards)

The Offer

Direct link to offer [not an affiliate link]

• Receive a 40,000 mile sign up bonus when you sign up for the Capital One Venture Miles card & spend $3,000 on purchases within three months

The Fine Print

• Capital one will do a hard credit pull on all three credit bureaus (most credit card applications will only be a hard pull with one credit bureau)
• Card earns 2 miles for every dollar spent
• Card has an annual fee of $59, waived for the first year
• No foreign transaction fees
• Card comes with the Capital One Credit Tracker. This provides a FAKO score that is remarkably similar to the score offered by Credit Karma. It is based on your TransUnion data.

Redeeming Miles

Your miles never expire as long as your card is open. Capital One venture miles are not your regular airline miles, they are really more of a point than mile. Miles can be redeemed for the following:

• Travel eraser: this lets you use your miles against travel purchases. Each mile is worth one cent. For example, let’s say you purchase a $200 plane ticket. You could apply 20,000 miles to this purchase and you’d no longer have to pay for that purchase. If you used this option the bonus would be worth $400. People have reported that the following are available for redemption (keep in mind this might not always be the case, YMMV): Flights, hotels, car rental, tolls, taxis. Travel charges can be redeemed against for a period of 90 days after the purchase is made and there is a minimum redemption of $10. You have to redeem in increments of 1/10th of the total charge. For example if you purchase airline tickets for $1,000 you can only redeem in increments of $100. More information here.
• Gift cards: When you redeem for gift cards you get one cent per mile value as well. Amazon is one of the included gift cards. Minimum redemption on gift cards is $10.

Our Verdict

Earlier in the year there was an offer for 50,000 miles and the sign up bonus has been as high as 100,000 miles in the past (they actually had a promotion where they would double the miles you had a frequent flyer account which means some people got 200,000 miles). My main problem with capital one is the fact that they pull all three credit bureaus, in my opinion this is really akin to applying for three credit cards instead of just the one.

If you think of it like this, this is really a sign up bonus of $133.33 per hard pull. I personally don’t think this represents enough value to be worth it, so I won’t be applying for this card. There are also quite a few options that have a higher cash sign up bonus than this (e.g Wells Fargo Propel is $400 cash + $100 airline incidental reimbursement which can be used on a gift card).

Outside of the sign up bonus another reason people might apply for this card is because of the fact that it earns two miles per dollar spent (which would be 2% cash back if you have enough travel expenses to redeem against). In this case you’ll actually be better off getting the American Express Fidelity card which is a flat 2% cash back on all purchases with no annual fee (the sign up bonus is $75 currently). That way there is no need to worry about redeeming against travel purchases.

If you do have a lot of travel expenses then you’ll likely be better off with the Barclay Arrival Plus. This card also earns two miles per one dollar spent. These miles are worth one cent a piece when redeeming against travel expenses, the main advantage is that you also get a 10% rebate on all miles redeemed this way. This makes it earn at a rate of 2.222%. The annual fee is higher at $89 (waived first year), but there are multiple reports of people having this annual fee waived in the second year. It also comes with a 40,000 mile sign up bonus.

Just to sum up, I don’t think this deal is worth it due to the fact that there will be a hard pull on all three credit bureaus. There are higher cash sign up bonuses and cards that earn at a better rate for everyday purchases. For those that are interested in getting this card, I’d recommend waiting until the bonus goes back up to 50,000 miles. I don’t think you’ll ever see it go back up to 100,000 miles but I’ll happily be proved wrong. Don’t forget to read our post on how to get 4%+ cash back on all purchases if you haven’t already.

F.A.Q’s

I’ve held this card previously, is it possible to get the sign up bonus again? / Is this card churnable? 

The fine print does say “earn a one time bonus” emphasis mine. But there are a number of data points to suggest people have gotten this bonus multiple times.

• Yes: 1, 2
• Yes, this was according to a chat rep so take it with a grain of salt. They were also told they get the 20,000 point promotion instead of the increase 50,000 point promotion (which was what was being offered at the time). More data points: 1

I applied for this card recently with the 20,000 offer. Will Capital One increase it to 40,000?

No, unfortunately capital one does not do bonus matching. That said it’s always worth contacting them yourself to see what they say.

I was denied, is there a reconsideration number I can call? 

We don’t know of a specific reconsideration number to call for Capital One. You can call them on 1800 625 7866 which will get you through to an account manager and they might be able to overturn your denial. Reconsideration numbers are kept up to date here. We also have some tips for those who are nervous here.

If I’ve frozen my credit reports at a credit bureau, will they still approve me?

For some reason capital one will not accept codes (these are given out for security freezes) to view credit reports. If you have one or more reports frozen they will generally deny you. @mordyNY had success by calling multiple times, whilst others have reported failures when calling with a freeze on their reports.

What happens if I redeem against a travel charge and then cancel that charge and get a refund?

If you do it once or twice, nothing will happen (e.g you can successfully use points against the charge). We wouldn’t recommend doing this on purpose though as it could lead to account shut down/miles being taken away.

Direct link to offer [not an affiliate link] | Screenshot of offer

Hat tip to mile cards for first making me aware of this deal.