Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 weeks, you’re well aware of the new premium travel card from Capital One, The Venture X Card.
Venture X is a striking departure from the usual Capital One offerings, including premium benefits like lounge access and Global Entry/TSA Precheck statement benefits.
For the $395 annual fee, the card also includes a $300 statement credit for Capital One’s travel portal bookings and an incredible 10X points for hotels and rental cars booked through the same portal. Airline bookings earn 5X points and all other purchases earn 2X points. Upon account renewal, cardholders get a 10,000 point yearly bonus.
The card initially has a 100,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $10,000 in 6 months and an additional $200 statement credit for vacation rentals charged to the card over the first year.
While I’m not sure how the card will fit into my spending patterns in the long term, I decided the sign-up bonus was too good to pass up. With the $300 statement credit and $200 vacation rental credit (which we’ll use for the payment for our Airbnb in Hawaii), I’m already ahead $100 before the $1,000 sign-up bonus.
I felt little pressure when signing up for several reasons.
- I’ve never had a Capital One card. I stayed away because of the bank’s reputation of denying applications from customers who don’t carry balances on their cards. Since the launch, I read reports of approvals from people who have been denied for other Capital One cards in the past. If I applied and got rejected, there would be no big loss.
- If I keep the card for a year and decide that I don’t want it anymore, I can always cancel or downgrade it. I have no long-term relationship with the bank that I’m trying to preserve.
- I’m under 5/24 due to decreased applications during the pandemic (partially due to reduced spending and not worrying about meeting spending requirements.)
The application process was quick which included a few questions not asked by other banks, like if I usually carry balances on my credit cards and if I’d be interested in checks for cash advances on my account (the answers to these two questions were optional, so I left them blank.)
In less than a minute I was approved for quite a generous credit line.
I’ll be waiting for my card so I can start using it to meet that spending requirement. I know that I said I would be putting my non-bonused spend on my Fidelity Rewards card for 3% cashback but 12X points on $10,000 is a way better return on investment.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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