CApreppie

I recently had a no fee Capital One visa converted to a no fee 1.25 pts/$ Venture card. It was better than what I was getting on the other card. Account number stayed the same.

I had another Cap One card that they refused to waive the fee so I transferred the points to my other no-fee Cap One card and had them close it. They did not want to work with me so screw them.

I pretty much use my Fidelity 2% Amex for all my purchases unless its 5% bonus eligible on Discover or a good cashback percentage on ShopDiscover. Cap One only comes out when places only take Visa/MC.

JapanFlyerT

Paid for a hotel room for $62, and used all my remaining points to cover it (well, I left about about .30 on the account, my loss

Canceling was a bit of a pain. Gave all my details to one person, then got transferred and had to repeat everything.

Sapphire will take priority for dining, hotels and air now (unless an SPG property).

Marathon Man

I will be cancelling our 3 cards from last year and hope this applies to me as well. Thanks for your post

flyguy

I am pleased to have found this thread. I am considering the no fee Capital One Venture card now. I am within 30 days of cancelling my British Airways Visa which I took for the 100,000 mile bonus. I put another $30,000 of charges on the card but don't want to pay the $95 renewal fee. BTW, that $30,000 in a year is advertised to get you a free companion award ticket in any class. Upon asking about it, I found those charges had to be within a Jan 1-31 Dec period not 12 months from card issue.
So I asked to have the fee waived for the coming year and they refused and I am cancelling.

My credit rating is very very good so I don't anticipate any problem acquiring the Capital One card. I was wondering how the any airline feature of the card rewards worked. Could anyone help with that?

dldkjones

Can anyone else confirmed this for switching to the cash back card? With the 1.5% and no travel reqmt. this is what I am considering switching to, but want to keep my measly unspent points balance by having it converted into $.

Happy

I just did it this afternoon. Talked to 2 reps and both reps claimed that, C1 considered the conversion as an "upgrade" - because it is the customer who requested it (crazy logic as no other bank applies such term on conversion. Besides, Venture clearly is the top card among all C1 offerings - but both reps insisted it was an "upgrade"). As such, you are not allowed to any other C1 promotion for 6 months. Well, there is no worthy promotion to be had anyway for us who got the 100K miles match last year.

The 1st rep said I needed to convert ASAP because once the annual fee is billed, I will be stuck to pay the annual fee unless I cancel the Venture without conversion. If converted to other card, it means the Venture is not canceled per the 1st rep and the annual fee will stay, despite the Cash Reward is 0 fee. The 2nd rep isn't sure how it works. So I decided to convert it now. Meanwhile I sent a secured message on husband's card about how the annual fee works if being billed while the card is not converted yet - his card statement date is 03/28 so there is still some time. Mine is 03/20 and the 1st rep said annual fee normally billed 2 weeks before statement closing date so she cautioned me not to wait too long to convert it.

The points would be converted to the Cash Reward card's cash reward balance as well. I have less than 10 miles left so I dont care and not ask for the valuation how it converts.

Also, those of us who convert the card will get a Visa version of the Cash Reward instead of the MC version advertised on C1 site. Everything carries over, including the account number though you would still receive a new card in 10 business days. The earning structure takes effect in 4 to 5 business days after the conversion.

Be sure to take down the rep's name and ID so you can always refer back to the person who does the conversion. C1 seems to use off-site CS Reps who access the system from their own homes and connect with others via IM or text message of their system from what I can guess.

Happy

There is no airline feature. The "miles" C1 award is nothing more than a gimmicky name for a cash-equivalent instrument - one C1 mile equals to 1 penny when you use it to redeem TRAVEL-RELATED charges, i.e. hotel bookings, airline ticket purchases, rental cars etc. You cannot use it to offset other charges that are not travel-related. When using it for redeeming gift card / merchandise, the value drops to 0.5 penny per "mile".

You may want to check out the current promotion that has a running thread in Miles Buzz forum - the promotion this year is different - in that it aims for high spender therefore the proof for matching is your 2011 travel-related card year end summary - C1 would give you 2 miles per $ on your year end total spending up to 100,000 miles. Too bad your BA $30K split between years. Otherwise, it can be use for 60K C1 miles in the case you want to take that promotion.

Below is OT but based on your post, below may be helpful to you.

I urge you study each potential card's features and benefits before you apply for one to prevent the same costly mistake you have made on BA Visa's $30K spending. For the $30K spend would net you far more than putting on BA Visa even if you get the companion award ticket.

Do you realize that the free companion travel on award redemption would have to go thru LHR on BA metal which can cost you a big cash outlay due to BA's fuel surcharge on award? That ranges from several hundreds to close to a thousand for a trip North America to Europe depends on where you start and where you end.

Also BA has devalued its program big time from Nov 2011, now it charges miles PER SEGMENT on a fixed scale, not actual distance travel - if you have to fly connection to get to your destination, the miles (avios) would jump a lot more than if you fly a direct, non-stop route... If you haven't used much of your BA miles, the best usage now is for SHORT HAUL, domestic flights on AA - one segment such as DFW-FLL that type. AA domestic redemption is still free of fuel surcharge and often short haul domestic flights can be expensive, esp for last minute walk up. BA program does not charge close-in redemption so that is another advantage. There are other potential short haul usages that are advantageous such as within South America on LAN (largely no fuel surcharge), or within Asia on CX (subj to fuel surcharge). BA forum has specific thread you can read - check the STICKY.

Marathon Man

Similar to what happy found, i called this eve about my biz card from last year and was able to "upgrade" it to the lesser but no fee card with the new spark name on it. It will be a new physical card coming in the mail in 10+ days but its the same acct and so any miles i ever do get with it can be merged with ones i still have on....

My wifes personal card, on which im an auth user, and we are keeping it.

But today i did cancel my personal card. I cant qualify this year so no need to try and look good for them anyway.

We had three cards...
My biz
My personal
Wifes personal.

Now we have my new spark biz no fee (so no reason to not keep it)
Her personal with fee soon to hit (but we use it)

dldkjones

Does anyone know if you and others can transfer points into your Cap1 cash back rewards card from the other Cap1 points based programs such as the Venture card?

Marathon Man

I was told yes... Miles to miles or cb to cb. No mixing. Best to call to confirm

scwam

I just converted my Spark Business to the cash rewards card. I called yesterday to find out about the annual fee. It did not post yesterday nor had shown on the account when I called them. My account opening date was 3/26 and I was told it would not post until 3/31. My statement had also printed last night and today the annual fee showed up. But they got a supervior to waive it and now I'm going to be $1194 richer. This is problably the most single lucrative credit card I've obtained. Wish I had been approved for the personal too. I got the duplicate application when I did it last year despite clearing cookies and different browsers (IIRC).

Happy

Did you convert your card yesterday when the annual fee was not billed yet, or today AFTER you saw the annual fee had been billed?

The rep I talked to insisted that once the annual fee was billed, the only way to waive it is to close the account. This is the same answer I got from secured message. In other words, once the annual fee is billed, even you choose to convert to a no fee card at that time, the annual fee would stay.
That is why I ask you to please clarify the timeline you converted your card.

scwam

03/09/2012
CAPITAL ONE MEMBER FEE
Fee $59.00
Details:
CAPITAL ONE MEMBER FEE
Transaction Date: 03/09/2012
Posted Date: 03/09/2012


03/10/2012
MEMBERSHIP FEE ADJUSTMENT
Fee ($59.00)
Details:
MEMBERSHIP FEE ADJUSTMENT
Transaction Date: 03/09/2012
Posted Date: 03/10/2012

I called and closed after the fee posted (Sat). When I initially called on Friday afternoon (which happend to be my statement closing date), neither I nor the rep could see that fee. I specfically asked him when the fee would post. I opened the acccount on 3/26 and he said would post on the last day of March. Even after checking with his supervisor he was wrong. I did not close the account that day and said I will call back in a day or 2. The fee was so new that they had no issue removing that. Above is the actual copy n' paste from my account. At first I knew the rep "upgrading" my card did not see that fee and I acted like I had just noticed it on my account while on the phone and explained what the previous rep told me the day before. She thanked me for pointing it out and put me on hold for a while (maybe to check with a supervisor before adjusting it).

lifeonitsown

Called to downgrade my card after the fee was billed... They offered to waive my fee for a year if I do not downgrade. I accepted because I actually like the card. I had about 10K shopping on it.

Happy

@ scwam, thanks for the extra info. very helpful. On Monday we will call to convert husband's. His statement date is 03/28, the fee should not show up just yet but we will check first. He has a $30K CL so it is worth keeping by conversion.

@ lifeonitsown, your experience is the new twist first reported here - may be now they are seeing a wave of cancellation as the offer last year was from March, so now they finally decide to use the fee waive tactic.