Getting Approved For Capital One Venture X: The Story So Far

Capital One saw what was out there and raised the stakes this past week.

The launch of the Venture X card is being toted as a “new class of travel card”, and it’s very clearly taking aim at current competitors in the premium card market, like Amex Platinum and the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Where the card shines is simplicity and borderline insane value: you’re making your annual fee back practically from day one, with perks like lounge access and up to 10X earning on travel that make the card worthwhile, many times over. Earning 10X points is the equivalent of 10% back, or better, on some purchases.

Plus, Venture Miles now benefit from 15 1:1 airline transfer partners, which means the card’s generous 100,000 point welcome bonus can be converted into 100,000 airline miles with top loyalty programs, in addition to cash back options.

Few other cards, if any, can really compete with the bar Capital One is setting. The only issue so far has been history. Capital One was notorious for a strict approvals process, in particular for people with excellent credit. With nearly a week of data points rolling in, here’s what we’ve seen so far.

Venture X Approvals For Previous Denials

When Capital One offered a 100,000 point bonus on the Venture Card, many readers with excellent credit were surprised to be turned down. At the time, rumors suggested Capital One might’ve preferred people with lesser credit profiles, or those who carry balances.

No one will really ever know exactly what the hold ups were, but it’s exciting that those hold ups seem to be gone on this exciting new premium card.

Approvals were easy for my family and I’ve heard from many readers who were among the “surprised” denials on previous cards, that they’ve had absolutely no issue with an approval for the Venture X. Here are a few positive trends that appear to be emerging.

Spoiler alert: people are getting approved!

“Ok” To Hold Both Venture And Venture X

Many readers with current Capital One Venture accounts were worried that they wouldn’t be approved for the Venture X, too. So far, it seems there’s no issue at all in getting approved for both. If you have one, it shouldn’t exclude you from the other.

I’ve heard from many who even received their Venture approval within the last 6 months, who have been instantly approved for the Venture X. To me, it makes a lot of sense – this is a new premium card with plenty of key differences to Venture, so why not let people have both, right?

More Than 2 Capital One Cards “Ok” Too

Approvals and underwriting are a very secretive process in the credit card world, and rumors and past data points always indicated that it wasn’t possible to hold more than two Capital One personal cards at a time.

As seen by GSTP and other blogs, happy readers are chiming in that even though they already have two Capital one personal cards, such as dining centric Savor and Venture, they’ve also now been approved for the Venture X too. This creates quite an incredible card arsenal, with top rates on dining, travel and every day spend.

What Will The Venture X Credit Limit Be?

Capital One Venture X is a Visa Infinite Card, which is the most premium level of card offered by Visa. Accordingly, each Capital One Venture X card comes with a minimum credit limit of $10,000, but most people have reported higher figures on approvals.

In addition to all the rather awesome benefits offered directly by Capital One, Visa Infinite cards come with a variety of perks which can be extremely handy, particularly when traveling or dealing with merchants.

Is There A Specific Credit Score Needed To Be Approved?

Capital One Venture X is designed as a product for people with “excellent” credit. Plus, the points game is also always best played without carrying balances and by paying any card balances in full each month, whenever possible.

There’s no specific score mentioned for this lucrative rewards card, but generally, excellent credit is deemed to be scores in the 700’s or ideally, above.

This means people don’t necessarily need to have perfect credit to be approved, but should have an excellent history of paying on time each month and keeping any balances well below 30% of credit lines. High balances rarely work well on new apps.

Capital One Venture X: Worth Applying?

Travel is personal and so are rewards credit cards.

For my family and I, this card is a no brainer. I know I’ll more than make my annual fee back each year, while enjoying some truly innovative travel perks, like price drop protection through Capital One Travel and lounge access without pesky guest fees, thanks to free authorized users.

Capital One pulls from all three credit bureaus, and applying for new cards can always cause a temporary (usually single digit) point drop on scores, but this may be the best card launched in years, so for me it’s worth it. It may even replace another card with a higher annual fee…

You can read the full review here, or apply here.