Capital One Application And Welcome Bonus Rules

Like all credit card issuers, Capital One requires you to provide personal information to check your credit card and eligibility for different cards based on your creditworthiness. While it doesn’t publish precise criteria for who may or may not qualify for approval, Capital One has a reputation for being strict on eligibility and holding high standards for their premium cards.

It is important to know that when you apply for a credit card from Capital One, your credit report may be pulled from all three credit bureaus. This won’t impact most applicants, but if you are sensitive to credit inquiries with a certain bureau, you might not be able to avoid it with Capital One.

Number of Cards

Capital One doesn’t have a published, firm rule on how many Capital One cards a holder may have. While some sources will tell you Capital One doesn’t let users have more than two of its cards, others will report that number can be up to five. In reality, the answer will depend on individual cardholders and their history, especially if some lines of credit with Capital One are decades old.

This number will also vary depending on the type of card: personal cards versus business cards versus co-branded cards. For example, a cardholder may have a co-branded card such as the Key Rewards Visa* or Capital One Cabela’s CLUB® Credit Card* and the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card (rates & fees) for personal charges—having these cards likely will not impact their ability to be approved for a business rewards card, like the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business*.

Application Timing

Timing is one of the most important factors when deciding to apply for a Capital One credit card. The bank looks very closely at recent inquiries on your credit report and it is possible to get rejected, even with excellent credit, if you have many recent inquiries on your credit report.

For example, an additional disclosure in the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card terms and conditions states you are not eligible if you “have applied for a Capital One credit card 2 or more times in the last 30 days.” With any credit card application, it is recommended to wait several months between applying for cards, in case your score dipped temporarily from hard inquiries, and to minimize scrutiny around whether you’re requesting too much credit line all at once.

Welcome Bonus Rules

Capital One can offer appealing welcome bonuses on certain cards, like the current offer for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. Because of the appeal of earning massive points in one go, there are rules for how often you can earn a welcome bonus with Capital One.

In the past, the terms for many Capital One cards included language like “The bonus may not be available for existing or previous account holders.” Now, Capital One has clarified their language to be much more explicit, stating:

“Existing or previous cardmembers are not eligible for this product if they have received a new cardmember bonus for this product in the past 48 months.”

This means it may be possible to earn a welcome bonus for a given card more than once, though it’s not guaranteed.

For a long time, Capital One marketed their flagship Venture and Spark card families simply as flat-rate rewards cards, when in fact, you really just earned points that you could redeem for statement credits. Whatever you want to call them, earning flat-rate rewards with Capital One wasn’t a bad deal. Unfortunately, there was no way to maximize the redemption value of the points.

With the move into the transferrable currency space and updates to its wallet offerings, Capital One has meaningfully increased the value of their points. Keep these guidelines in mind if you look to explore their options and add to your own rewards.