Received my Aven Rewards Visa in 5 business days via Priority Mail. It's made of stainless steel, 16g.
3% cash back on the first $10K, annually, 2% unlimited after, no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee. There is a sign up bonus of $100 but it has to be a referral. Otherwise without a sign up bonus you can go directly to the application at Aven.
The app says that this is a soft pull. No risk for you to apply. But a hard pull is immediate on approval with Experian.
The UI on the website and app are superb. Everything from statements to bill pay to rewards are on here and fluid. There are some hoops on the application and setup. LIke ID photo and personal photo upload. Also they will ask for income and if they can't verify, you may need to prove with requested supporting documents. I was approved with the number I gave, no issues or requests for further proof.
Aven will report this as a secured line of credit even though you won't be using any assets or cash deposits as collateral. It seems that Aven has found a loophole here with simply saying your asset purchases, with their card, is the collateral, per billing cycle (lien released upon payment). Of course this doesn't make sense since most purchases are services, pershiables or bills, for myself. But it seems to work and the credit services accept this as a secured LOC (line of credit), even though it's actually unsecured. I'm thinking this is a good thing, since this will help with a mix of credit on your reports.
Citi:
Chase:
Aven:
RH:
@smcj wrote:Question: soft or hard pull (or soft pull followed by "you are approved/preapproved/whatevered for" and then hard pull only if/after you accept)?
They didn't give me a chance to accept.. Thus right to hard pull on being approved. But maybe I clicked on something in haste?
@ElvisCaprice wrote:
@smcj wrote:Question: soft or hard pull (or soft pull followed by "you are approved/preapproved/whatevered for" and then hard pull only if/after you accept)?
They didn't give me a chance to accept.. Thus right to hard pull on being approved. But maybe I clicked on something in haste?
Interesting. Maybe you did -- but maybe not. I found two things at the link where one can check this card out.
- In the spot at the *top* of the page where you can enter your data and hit a "go" button, that button says "Apply Now" and there is no language about it being a soft pull, or not affecting your credit score, etc.
- At the *bottom* of the page, there is an additional place to enter your data and hit a "go" button. Down there, the button says "Check your offer", and immediately below it is small-type text in boldface that reads:
Qualifying does NOT affect your credit score.
Check in as fast as 2 minutes.
That second bit is clearly soft-pull language.
It would strike me as a bit odd for the top-page and bottom-page submissions to kick off different processes. Aven's page itself is also not internally consistent in at least one other way -- smack in the middle there is some text that refers to the cash back rate as 2% instead of 3% (I know it's actually 3%; Aven presumably borrowed the 2% language from their home equity-backed card page, and then didn't properly proofread and correct). But with all that said, that variance between top and bottom of page is right there.
Curious.
So in my case Aven pulls Experian (they did for the soft-pull HELOC offer) and I'm not wanting to drop a hard inquiry on that report "by mistake." If anyone is daring enough to see for themselves whether the bottom one will do a soft or hard pull to cough up an offer, I'm really curious. Any volunteers out there? 
I do know for a fact Aven will do a soft pull to give an offer (separately) for their HELOC product (been there done that), so I would anticipate similar handling... absent your personal report of a hard pull, that is.
My given APY was 17.99%
@ptatohed wrote:
EC, do you know if you can add an AU to this card?
My only "non-credit card" credit card (upgrade) does not allow AUs. Which was a big bummer for me as, at that time, my citi DC 2% card was my wife's and my daily driver and I had gotten the upgrade 2.2% to replace the DC - but I could not add her.
Good question, that I do not know. AI says you can. I can't find a place in the App. I just fired off an email to them, I'll let you know what they say.
