Capital One isn’t the most popular credit card issuer (due to #1 on this list) but sometimes they offer big sign up bonuses so they are still worth considering (especially when you combine #2 and #3 for multiple cards with frozen reports). Here are some things everybody should know about Capital One credit cards.
The List
- Capital One pulls your credit report from all three credit bureaus. This matters because new applications on your credit report affect your FICO score, other issues will usually only pull from one of the three bureaus meaning you get a chance to spread those new inquiries out.
- Capital One will still approve you if you have one credit report frozen. This goes back to the point we made above, but basically you can freeze either your TransUnion or Experian credit reports and still get approved. Freezing Equifax doesn’t look like it’ll work.
- You can get the sign up bonus on Capital One cards more than once. As long as you’re approved, you should get the bonus. There doesn’t seem to be any minimum waiting period.
- Capital One has limits when it comes to how many cards you can have with them. Maximum of two personal cards, but only Capital One branded cards (e.g not co-branded cards like the Sony card) count. Cards that have been product changed due to other cards being discontinued do not count either (even if they are Capital One branded cards).
- Capital One does not match higher sign up bonuses. So make sure you’re applying for the best offer.
- You can request a credit limit increase with Capital One online, once every six months. It’s a soft pull as well.
- They also allow you to do credit limit reallocations online.
Unfortunately we still do not know if it’s a hard or soft pull, both cards need to have been opened for at least six months. (Update: Seems to be a soft pull) - You can view what cards you’re pre-approved for online. Although I haven’t seen anybody saying they were offered a higher than publicly available bonus using this.
- Capital One doesn’t really have a reconsideration department if you’re denied for one of their credit cards. You need to receive an official e-mail from them with the status of your application you can then try calling one of the many numbers available for them. If you’re new to reconsideration calls, we recommend reading this first.
- They do not expedite new cards. If an existing card is lost or stolen, they might expedite a card but you’ll need to kick up a fuss and sometimes even pay a fee.
- Capital One will report your statement balance as your credit used to the credit reporting agencies. So if you want to lower your credit utilization, pay your card off before your statement closes.
- They do have a referral program. This was added in 2019
- They do allow product changes between different cards. But they have a weird set of rules that we don’t understand, sometimes they’ll process the request and sometimes they deny it. Either way, there is no hard pull. You can also check for potential product changes here.
- Minimum spending requirements start as soon as the card is approved.
- They will refund the annual fee if the card is cancelled within 30 days of the annual fee posting.
- Capital One doesn’t really offer retention bonuses, but they’ll usually waive the annual fee on your cards.
- Some Capital One business credit cards DO get reported to the personal credit bureaus. Keep this is mind as these cards will show up on your credit report. An exception is the Spark Cash Plus and the Venture X Business cards which are not reported.
- You won’t usually be able to reinstate a Capital One credit card which you closed voluntarily if you later change your mind.
- You cannot check your credit card application status online, instead you must call (800) 903-9177.
- Capital One will always proceed to do the auto-pay for the full statement balance, even if you make payments beforehand.
- It is possible to get an instant credit card number by downloading the app.
- You’re limited to one Capital One card per six months.
- Cannot change your credit limit, usually set at 30% of your credit limit.
Things We Aren’t Sure About
- Currently there isn’t anything we are unsure about, we will update this section if there is.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you learned something new, we’ve done a similar thing for the majority of the other credit card issuers. I’d recommend reading those posts (linked below):
- American Express
- Bank of America
- Barclaycard
- Chase
- Citi
- Comenity
- Discover
- Synchrony
- TD Bank
- US Bank
- Wells Fargo
Regarding the cash advance limit, if I add myself as an authorized user and lowered the CL (and thereby the CA limit) for that user, would any purchases made under that user count toward the spend requirement for the bonus? Or is it just the main user? Are there any drawbacks to using this method? Would it be counted 2x on my credit report for instance, and count against 5/24?
re #17…i think its the big spender bonus business cards that dont report to personal. i.e. venture x and spark cash plus. The smaller spender business cards, spark mile, cash, miles select, cash select do report to personal.
I don’t think #4 is still enforced. I have a Venture X and a Quicksilver. I applied and was instantly approved for a SavorOne for a total of 3 Personal CapitalOne branded credit cards
I don’t think #1 is true anymore (or maybe I’m just unlucky). I got denied last week with only Experian frozen and they sent the following in a letter:
“Unfortunately, your card application is incomplete due to one or more credit freezes on your application. If you would like to proceed with your card application, please contact Equifax, Experian, and Transunion using the phone numbers provided below to remove your credit freeze(s)”
Wouldn’t that confirm it true then that CapOne pulls all three?
May 2024… my P2 was able to freeze Experian and still get approved.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/capital-one-business-spark-cash-select-spark-miles-select-increased-signup-bonus-750-50000-no-annual-fee/#comment-1846308
Counter DP for #3: denied for Venture X solely because I had the card before. Opened VX early 2022 and PC’d to Quicksilver after one year, also applied for Venture about that same time, but declined their (downgraded) offer for Venture One instead. No other C1 applications.
“Based on your application information, you have previously earned a spend bonus on this product.”
Interesting. This could be a new restriction, or it could be a restriction that applies only to Venture X. I have gotten gotten multiple SUBs for the Venture card, last one in June of this year.
For shits & giggles, froze P2’s Experian and applied for the 90k VX offer, only difference is P2 has an open VX card since late 2021… also denied: “Based on your application information, you have previously earned a spend bonus on this product”.
Having quite a few other cards and applications, we are not concerned about the potential hard pulls, but it looks like neither recent app resulted in any pull from C1, just hard denials for having the card currently or previously. Both earlier VX approvals were with Experian frozen.
I checked my pre-qualified cards and saw none of them show the sign up bonus offer which I thought was weird. I should have known that wasn’t good. I applied and the confirmation email said that I wasn’t eligible for the sign up bonus because I was an existing or previous accountholder. I’ve never had that card before. I immediately called and this rep was absolutely clueless, lied to me and said I would get the bonus. I waited for the mail packet. It confirms no sign up bonus. I called and the first rep took a long time to find the promotion I was talking about and then I had to be transferred to a different department that deals with the sign up bonus. That rep gave me the reason it was due to my credit score. I have excellent credit and what does my credit score have to do with a new cardmember sign up offer? Then I was transferred to another rep who admitted she doesn’t know how Crap1 decides who gets the sign up bonus. She offered to cancel the card. Gladly agreed. What a waste of time.
I can confirm this information is accurate. Called today to try to lower my cash advance limit, which is currently 30% of my credit limit, and was told it’s not possible.
Comment regarding #1: Cap1 ALSO hard pulls LexisNexis when you apply for a card (at least they did for me with VentureX), so technically it’s a “quadruple pull.” They are the only credit card issuer that I have seen do this.
This may affect your insurance credit score, so it may be worth considering if you plan on shopping around for a new policy in the short term.
#23 cap one cards don’t have forex fees
I think an update to #17 is needed. I opened a Spark Cash in March ’23, and it is reporting to my personal credit report. Dunno if there are other data points on this, but it appears from my experience that this credit card is no longer exempt from the issuer’s reporting standards for business credit cards.