Discover it Miles VS CapitalOne Venture

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to decide if I should try for the Discover it miles card or the CapitalOne Venture. My scores are 671, 689, 686.

[Anonymous]

Hey, welcome to the forum!

It is a little hard to fully help you without knowing what you're looking for, if you have other credit cards and without knowing what you credit proifle looks like but, if you are looking for a solid comparison of these two cards, here it goes.

I've heard that with the new changes added to the Venture card (transfer partners coming in and 75k signup bonus) Capital One is being very picky towards who they want to approve this card for so, with your current credit score sitting around 682 (your average), I would actually go for the Discover It card (not the miles, tho and I will explain why down below). With the Venture one you do get 10x back when booking hotels through hotels.com and that's awesome and you'd get 2x back on every purchase (at a ratio of 2 : 1.5 when transferring to airlines). This card is a metal card and it has a $95 annual fee that is waived for the first year. It is a metal card and it isn't a the same time, haha! Its a piece of metal with two "plaques" of plastic on the sides, its very "bendable" but if it matters to you, it is a "metal" card. 

I currently have the Discover it Miles and now I realized that I should have applied for another product instead of the Miles. Even though they use the term "miles" you are actually earning 1.5 cashback and there are better cards for that such as the Citi Double Cashback! With the Discover it Miles you can't transfer to any airline or hotels, you just use the cashback earned to erase your travel purchases but keep it in mind that you first have to use your available limit to book your trip, then if you have enough points, you can cover your expenses. It is indeed a cashback card. I would say that the only thing that I use this card for, nowadays, is for the in-flight wifi credit ($30 per year) but that's it.

Like I mentioned before, without knowing your credit profile, I can't fully help you but describe the cards. I do wanna mention again that the new revamped Venture card would be harder to get approved for, I could be a waste of a hard pull on your credit report but I mean, its up to you. There are some great other options out there such as the Citi Double Cashback or the Chase Freedom card depending on what you want to do with your points/ cashback. By the cards you mentioned, I believe you want to use the points/cashback for travel, right? You could also considered the Amex Delta cards or even the Citi AA cards.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your input. My credit history is now as follows: I have a mortgage loan and a student loan, total $263,000. Total credit card debt is $0. I only have two store cards Victoria Secret and Old Navy total CL is $1200. i periodically put a balance on them, then pay off before the interest hits, to keep them active. My last automatic increase was with VS last year. None from Old Navy. I spent 3 yrs cleaning up  my credit, and my oldest account is about 11 yrs old. I only have the four accounts as mentioned, open on my credit reports. No inquires, no BK, no Liens. I have two blemishes, one is about to be removed. The other is an old CapitalOne Journey credit card that I was irresposible with. Owing $2300, but its not affecting my score due to the age. I'm thinking about trying to settle that one once I get money to do so. The biggest set back so far is age of accounts are old enough.

What I am looking for is a credit card with a min limit of $3000, and travel miles as rewards for two reasons: I want to build business credit and my business is in traveling. I need to shore up my personal credit score so as to carry over to my business credit score/report card. I want to save on my travel expenses, I travel about 3-4 times a year both in state and overseas.

[Anonymous]

Hey,

First, as you mentioned some "blemish", I will assume that you "burned" some banks (including Capital One as you mentioned).

On your original post you mentioned waiting to get the Capital One Venture but didn't mention that you "burned" them so, being very literal, forget about it. Future reference for your next topic, let us know your situation first.

Well, if you still have a "blemish" on your credit report, I honestly doubt that Capital One will approve you for the Venture, specially with them being super picky about new applicants and the fact that you "burned" them.

About them being picky: Not saying that this is your case but I think that they are affraid of people turning cards and only getting their cards for the signup bonus, (which is 75k - At least $750 if redeemed as cashback) then cancel the card even before paying the first annual fee (as the 1st annual fee is waived).

Travel cards are normally like "mid-tier" cards or premium cards, what I mean by that is that I believe that you should go with an "entry level" card then, after bulding a relationship with the bank, applying for a travel card. Because you're still rebuilding your credit report and you still have a baddie being reported, I'd go this route to be safe and not waste hard pulls. In this situation I'd go with something like the Chase Slate or Freedom or even another bank. Maybe Discover could be a good one?

I also hardly believe that a bank will give you a $3K credit line to begin with because like I mentioned before, you don't have a reltionship with these banks, you have baddies reporting on your credit report and also you (I imagine) only have store credits and they both together don't have a total credit line of $3k. Also, as you know, the fact that you "burned" some banks don't help either.

From my perspective, you will have to wait a little before getting a travel credit card. Like I mentioned, get a "started card" first them move on but the first step here is initiating a relationship with a bank (because you will need one and in your case, it needs to be a good one) and go from there. They will probably give you a small credit line such as 1k or less maybe but don't surrender and remember, this is a marathon, don't try to sprint! 

PS: Sorry if I was too harsh, I just want to be honest and not give you false hope. You will get a travel card, just go slow.

Oh, one more "PS", haha! You could totally apply for all these travel credit cards out there, just put your info and hit the button "apply" but consider your chances of being denied and measure if its worth the hard pull. Only apply for cards that you have a "chance" of being approved.