A couple of days ago, the $59 annual fee on my Capital One Venture card came up for renewal. I had signed up for the card back in 2012 under the promo in the image. I was sorta playing the credit card game back then, but wasn’t as serious as I am now. I think I had submitted my SPG card’s statement, and only got something like ~25K points. The year prior, Capital One was matching you up to 110,000 points if you showed them your frequent flyer statement. They ended the promo after 1 month since people got that easily. The year I signed up, they moved to the ‘credit card’ statement instead of the frequent flyer statement. I used those Venture one points to book 2 tickets on my Tahiti to Bora Bora flight, which can only be paid for in cash [or the Capital One travel portal in my case.]
2% cashback card
This was one of the first true 2% cards. The Barclay’s Arrival card didn’t even exist yet. I think Discover was still using a tiered cashback structure. No one was doing 5% quarterly bonuses yet either. I’ll miss the card even though I haven’t used it in 2 years.
Retention
Capital One had given me a credit for the 2nd year. They even gave me a credit for the 3rd year too, which I was shocked since I made NO SPEND on the card all year. I called up retention last night to cancel my card. The first line rep said, “Okay” and proceeded to read me the closing monologue. At the very end, I asked, “Wait, can’t I downgrade this card to a no annual fee version?” She said she looked in the system and didn’t see it as an option. She said that I could apply for a new card but could not do a conversion. I even asked to convert to a Quicksilver no annual free card. Nope. Well then….cancel the card then! I wonder if it has anything to do with me closing my Capital One 360 checking account earlier in the year. Anyway, good riddance Capital One and your lousy credit card offers and pulling from all 3 credit bureaus!