Got this in the mail today. 1.5% cash back and it says $500 cash back after spending $4,500. I figure I can put my estimated taxes on this card once, eat the $13 (1.79%-1.5% * 4500) and net $487.

However, I've never done a Capital One card before.

Some quick googling tells me they'll pull all 3 credit bureaus. Suddenly that seems like it's not really worth $500. There are other things I could do to make $500 that won't impact my credit so much.

What do you all think, would you do it? I'm due for my AoR this week and kind of like the idea of giving Chase and Citi bank a break and doing one of the other lenders, but how bad is pulling all 3 credit bureaus at once?

It's worth thinking about where you live as well, if the majority of places all pull the same bureau then it's really only one pull as your other reports don't matter as much. I think it's worth it for $500, public bonus is $300.

THAT is an excellent point.

I just checked on creditboards though and it seems like for Portland, OR Chase and Citi both bounce around between Equifax/Experian, and Barclay always does TransUnion, so either way I'll take the hit.

I've got 11 HP Equifax and 6 on TransUnion. I'm gonna have to think long and hard about whether it's worth it or not for this one.

Why is it 1.5% back when the normal rate is 2%?

Got the same offer in the mail at work.

No annual fee? $500 cash back? yes please.

Freeze EX, then apply. I was instantly approved with EQ + TU pulls.

Me too. Then again, i was already CrapOne customer, so they just soft-pulled EX

Pulling all 3 credit bureaus is not the same thing as 3 pulls!!!

Your credit is impacted by pulls per bureau, not by how many bureaus show pulls.

Now, whether $500 is worth a single pull per bureau, that's worth asking. I normally only apply for cards that give me hotel points signup bonuses or airline miles signup bonuses or transferable points signup bonuses worth a $1k or even more (when used judiciously). (Of course, a card which you're going to keep and use way beyond the signup bonus would need a different method of evaluating the worth of a pull.)

But I disagree that just because it pulls multiple bureaus that that should be a big factor. The next card you apply for (after this one) will likely only pull one bureau, and will therefore only count the inquiries you got on that one bureau.

The answer is "no."

Discussion continues here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...000-miles.html