Why I didn't apply for Venture

[happypill]

So that whole long thing was about disliking triple pulls?  I kept reading looking for another issue but I guess that's it.  My response is each lender can set its policies and each borrower and decide which they like to work with.

The triple pulls suck, but for me it's easily offset by stuff that Cap One does well.  They don't HP when you ask for a CLI.  They don't hold grudges against people who burned them in the past.  They offer high limits (depending on credit of course).  They allow you to collect multiple sign-on bonuses for the same product.  Their rewards post instantly and you can redeem them instantly.  They don't declinde charges randomly for silly reasons (once they get to know your spending patterns).  There's probably some others I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Now, Capital One is a company out to make a profit and they don't do everything well, but they offer nice products that are useful to a lot of people.  Among the things they seem to do well, and this is a recent development, is that they appear to be adjusting their practices in response to customer needs.  Stuff like high initial CL, more generous CLI and even testing a metal card are all things that have been popular recently.  I also don't recall hearing about random AA like some other lenders have taken.

Triple pulls?  Meh, just not that big a deal for me currently.  Relatively benign quirk compared to what some other lenders do and far outweighed by the benefits.

[Anonymous]

most consumers are never going to have 16 inquiries instead of 12 unless they are auto shopping. perhaps cap1s triple tagging actually does the other credit card companies more good than it does them...And you stated that most people dont know about the triple pull...If that is something someone is worried about, then I would suggest they have some responsibility to find that out themselves. google capital one credit pull or something similar and in about 4 links you will know with absolute certainty that capital one triple pulls for all of their non cobranded cards. Anyone who is honestly worried about it, should know it.

[Anonymous]

It's not Capital One's job to make sure your credit reports look nice and pretty. It's their job to come up with a method to price risk and extend their service to as many people as possible. They triple pull, but they also tend to give very lenient approvals. Other's single pull, but are stricter with approvals.
Why you think it's offensive that they choose to get all of the information that they are entitled to gather is beyond me, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me and as others have said, i'm surprised it's not more common in the industry.
Believe it or not, Capital One is not geared towards people who want to get 10 credit cards per year, nobody is. The overwhelming majority of Americans apply for one card here and there, often going YEARS without any applications. For most people, getting a credit card is an important financial event, Capital One treats it that way.

[Sharingan]

I've had my own reservations and gripes about Capital One for a long time until I returned to them this past month. One of the biggest issues I've had with their cards is there's not a single one that isn't outclassed by better options on the market for creditworthy consumers. Regardless, I fully expect board members to have their own reasons for doing business with the lenders that they do, and it doesn't have to be justified or make sense to anyone. 

While I agree that the triple bureau pull is lame, most of us know what to expect going in. The general public probably isn't even aware, or they simply assume every lender will pull all 3... just like during a mortgage process. I have a bigger issue with banks that pull an EX, EQ, or TU report and then make their decision to decline you from one of the secondary bureaus. Most people aren't even aware of the existence of ARS and IDA. 

[kdm31091]

The triple pull is not that big of a deal. It's done once, it's overwith and they typically never HP you again, for CLI etc. So it's not that bad.

Their rewards system is really the best I've seen with regards to instant posting and redemption.

Now, the Venture itself, we all know how I feel about....it should not be marketed the way it is or the benefits need to be changed to make it an actual "useful for travel" vs just "restricted cash for travel" card.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to make sense of your rant, but for the life of me, I can't.

You complain about CapOne's triple pull. I get that; it's certainly a negative. But then you leap to the conclusion that this somehow entices people to apply for multiple CLI or additional CapOne cards. Say what?! I think exactly the opposite. Having applied for a CapOne card and enduring the triple pull, why on earth would I be enticed to endure an additional second triple pull for a CLI or another card? I rarely apply for a CLI, especially when a hard pull is involved. But a triple pull? Not going to do it.

Multiple cards? I two CapOne cards. My platinum select I applied for in 2007 because of a B/T deal. The Venture I applied for just a few months ago. In that period of time I've opened two dozen Chase cards. That's partly because Chase has offered such a variety of cards with great signup bonuses. But also because I know applying for a CapOne is a triple hit on my reports. So, yeah, that's definitely discouraged, not encouraged me from applying for multiple CapOne cards.  (For the moment, I'll skip the obvious question of "why is it so bad to encourage people to get multiple cards?")

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jfriend33 wrote:

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If and when I apply for venture, it will be a grand total of 9 pulls.

Why? How does three pulls balloon to nine? Are you somehow compelled to get multiple CLI's? I certainly have never had any interest in getting a CLI on my Venture.  I honestly don't know what C/L I got on my Venture, and I don't really care.  All I cared when I got it was that it was enough to meet the bonus spend.  It only takes $3,000 to get the signup bonus. So a C/L of $3,000 would be sufficient. Actually, even a C/L of $2k would be plenty sufficient. So what's the overwhelming need for more?  

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jfriend33 wrote:

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I almost pulled the trigger on a Venture. The 5k-10k maybe even 15k limt was entycing as ever. Not to mention the $400 bonus.  But there are better cards for travel rewards. You would have to spend ten grand a year on it alone just to make it remotely nice.

Nice? How about this. Apply for the Venture card. Endure a three-bureau pull. Spend $3,000 (that you would have spent anyway) on the card, including at least $460 on travel. Collect your bonus. Never apply for a CLI. Before the annual fee hits, cancel or convert the card to a no A/F card. Walk away $460 richer. In a year or so, if another CapOne offer comes around, lather, rinse, repeat, profit.  Sounds pretty nice to me.

Chris.

[kdm31091]

And I agree that OP's rant confuses me a bit. A lot of people have duplicate cards on here -- not necessarily Capital One, but in general. I've seen two Sallie Maes. I've seen two Cash+ cards, etc. In general they do it with capped rewards cards to increase their spending potential, or otherwise the second card may be a spouse's/AU card just to get two bonuses or whatever.

To each their own...I'd never have a duplicate card because I prefer a smaller number of cards and having 2 of the same thing for me is silly. However, saying the duplicate cards are limited to Capital One is definitely not true, nor have I especially noticed it.

Some do end up with two Quicksilvers but that is more because of PCing an older, useless card into a QS after already having one, and as we all know Capital One does not combine limits, so some people opt to just keep the two. Depends on your perspective.

[jamesdwi]

Yes CapOne is a company that most of us love at one point, and hate at other times, when I got started with CapOne it was only after recieving more than a dozen credit card offers from them. I finally decided it was time to get back into the credit card world, the offer was good, how good it was I didn't really grasp at the time. It was my first card on my Credit report, everything had fallen off long ago, they offered me a $750 CL, with 2 steps, one a CLI to $1000 after 6 on time payments, and then to $1500 after another 6 IIRC. at 11.9% still my lowest APR of any card I have. I also picked up a few store cards, then BestBuy, and Sears cards, all the lower end cards MC cards with AF. Both the BestBuy and Sears card were sold to CapOne, and I picked up another CapOne card don't really know why, perhaps wanted more available credit, So at one point I had 4 CapOne builder/rebuilding cards. Today the former Bestbuy and Sears cards are closed because they had low limits and a pain to get the AF waived each year. this was before CapOne turned it self around and started giving CLI's and removing AF's from cards after a couple of years of history. 

Do triple pulls suck yes, but is it real pain or more just pain in my mind that they are triple pulling me for nothing. When I was rebuilding, I frequently had 6+ INQ's on each of my reports. So really never impacted me at the time. Now that I am in primeville, I once again took the triple pull for the venture card, did it hurt, yes my mind hated it, did it really hurt my credit score not really. I would not have applied for another card if they hadn't triple pulled me, no because I now realise that the bigger hurt to my credit report comes from new accounts more than INQ's.  Each new card lowers my score for 6 months. Where the first INQ in 6 months may have little or no impact the second and 3rd have a larger hit perhaps 5-10 points, but after that additional hits really aren't bad. Why did I take the triple pull even though I am firmly in primeville? 400 reasons. plus 2pts per mile, though it may not be the best travel card, but the 40,000 points plus 6000 (3000 spend requirement at 2pts per dollar). is enough for 2 round trip tickets to California, next year I will probably be PC to the 0 AF card. I am happy I got the Venture card, a paid trip to California plus a 15k CL are some nice rewards for the triple pull. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Capital One, if you are reading this, listen up.  Once your customers have proved themselves, ease up on the inquiries.  Let them make the decision if they want to stay with you. Don't force them into it by tarnishing their scores.  Give the folks who want in with good/excellent scores a break; just single or double pull them. Bottom line this isn't just about inquiries. But if they stopped this entrapment I would think a lot more of them!

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For some, credit may be a game of honor and pride.

For me, it is a tool...I don't care how I achieve my credit as long as it is to my advantage.  The Venture card  is one of those tools that help you rebuild despite the 3 inquiries.  

You see posts at MyFICO asking how to get a $10K+ credit card all the time.  The Venture opens that $10K+ credit door but you can't step through because you don't want to pay the 3 inquiries.

And the reality of it all...inquiries just don't mean all that much.  I am sitting on 16 inquiries each on EX EQ and I do not get denied due to inquiries because it's spaced out.  Inquiries don't count for much after 6 months.

Looking at your other credit cards, I woulldn't be surprised if you got a $20K+ credit limit but you are unwilling to step out of low limit credti cards because of principle.

In the grand scheme of things, Cap1 (or any bank) doesn't care about you and your 3 inquiries.  In 6 months those 3 inquiries will just be a number on your relatively low inquiry credit report.  It will only be you continually getting low limit credit cards that will be holding the short end of the stick.

A $20K Venture will help your credit much more than those 3 lost inquiries.

Venture, Lowes, and NFCU are the tools of the hight credit limit trade...use them.  AMEX 3X is another but I'm seeing increasing denials these days.

[kdm31091]

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@jamesdwi wrote:

Yes CapOne is a company that most of us love at one point, and hate at other times, when I got started with CapOne it was only after recieving more than a dozen credit card offers from them. I finally decided it was time to get back into the credit card world, the offer was good, how good it was I didn't really grasp at the time. It was my first card on my Credit report, everything had fallen off long ago, they offered me a $750 CL, with 2 steps, one a CLI to $1000 after 6 on time payments, and then to $1500 after another 6 IIRC. at 11.9% still my lowest APR of any card I have. I also picked up a few store cards, then BestBuy, and Sears cards, all the lower end cards MC cards with AF. Both the BestBuy and Sears card were sold to CapOne, and I picked up another CapOne card don't really know why, perhaps wanted more available credit, So at one point I had 4 CapOne builder/rebuilding cards. Today the former Bestbuy and Sears cards are closed because they had low limits and a pain to get the AF waived each year. this was before CapOne turned it self around and started giving CLI's and removing AF's from cards after a couple of years of history. 

Do triple pulls suck yes, but is it real pain or more just pain in my mind that they are triple pulling me for nothing. When I was rebuilding, I frequently had 6+ INQ's on each of my reports. So really never impacted me at the time. Now that I am in primeville, I once again took the triple pull for the venture card, did it hurt, yes my mind hated it, did it really hurt my credit score not really. Would I applied for another card if they hadn't triple pulled me, no because I now realise that the bigger hurt to my credit report comes from new accounts more than INQ's.  Each new card lowers my score for 6 months. Where the first INQ in 6 months may have little or no impact the second and 3rd have a larger hit perhaps 5-10 points, but after that additional hits really aren't bad. Why did I take the triple pull even though I am firmly in primeville? 400 reasons. plus 2pts per mile, though it may not be the best travel card, but the 40,000 points plus 6000 (3000 spend requirement at 2pts per dollar). is enough for 2 round trip tickets to California, next year I will probably be PC to the 0 AF card. I am happy I got the Venture card, a paid trip to California plus a 15k CL are some nice rewards for the triple pull. 

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YMMV but there's little point in PCing to the no AF Venture (1.25% only for travel) when you have a QS at 1.5.