Numerous recent reports indicate that Capital One has been sending out targeted offers for the Venture card with no annual fee (1, 2, 3).
The standard offer for the Capital One Venture Rewards card is to get 40,000 point signup bonus, worth $400 in travel, and pay a $59 annual fee, waived for the first year. Under this targeted offer, many are receiving the exact same 40k bonus nd with no annual fee for life.
I suspect that Capital One is feeling the pressure of Citi Double Cash, which is a 2% card and has no annual fee at all. In fact, the Double Cash even offers the cashback directly, without the hassle of redeeming for travel.
Capital One may be testing the market and it’s possible we’ll see the annual fee dropped from the Venture sometime soon for good. If that happens, then it will definitely put pressure on Barclay to justify the $89 annual fee for their Arrival+ card.
Many people need more than one 2% card depending on how much they manufacture spend or resell – one card doesn’t always cut it. The Venture would start looking rosier if they dropped the annual fee, and the $400 signup bonus is nothing to sneeze at either.
Although Capital One is known to pull all 3 credit bureaus, it’s been possible to freeze your Experian and end up with Equifax and Transunion pulls only. Not bad.
