Talk about a bittersweet deal that came out today from Capital One.
The Sweet of the Capital One 100,000 Double Miles Challenge
- You can earn up to 100,000 Capital One “Miles.” These miles can be redeemed for car rental, hotel, airfare, cruise, and a few other expenses. The 100,000 points means that you can redeem up to $1000 in spending and they wipe it clean like it was never an expense.
- The minimum spending requirement is only $1000 within the first 90 days of approval. This is relatively low compared to most other offers on the market.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees. This is great if you are traveling overseas. I can’t wait to put mine to use when I head to Europe shortly.
- Once you get the points you can downgrade the card to a fee-free Capital One card and still keep all of the points accrued. (This does change your earning from 2 miles per dollar to 1.25 miles per dollar, but either way avoids the $59 annual fee.)
The Bitterness of the Capital One 100,000 Double Miles Challenge
- You can only qualify for the full 100,000 if you spent more than $50,000 on a single credit card last year. Per the terms and conditions it also excludes a number of cards.
Spend on small business cards, debit cards, fleet cards, private label credit cards, corporate cards, prepaid cards and Capital One credit cards is not eligible.
- Very few people will qualify to make the full 100,000 bonus. I wouldn’t even consider this card unless I had spent at least $30,000 on one single card within the last year.
- Capital One pulls your credit from all three credit Bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This is a total bummer because it puts more limitations on getting other credit cards in the future. For more information see our Doesn’t it Hurt My Credit Page.
- Per the terms and conditions: This offer is open to new Venture account holders who meet the eligibility criteria and whose applications are received before the promotion ends. Existing Venture customers and 2011 Match My Miles Challenge participants are not eligible for this promotion. Limit one entry per person.
This isn’t near as lucrative as last year’s offer of 100,000 Match My Miles Promotion. Qualifications were much easier last year, but the registration went really fast. They promised last year to allow either 1 billion points to give away or a two month window, whichever came first. The offer only lasted about two weeks and they closed it because they had awarded all billion points.
I definitely won’t be applying for this offer from Capital One for the Double Miles Challenge. The qualifications are REALLY difficult to meet, and the bonus isn’t even worth it unless you spent the $50,000 per year on a personal card. You would be much better off getting the Chase SapphireSM Preferred Card and using the $620 in airfare because the hurdles are much lower.
