Capital One Extending Min Spend Requirements Till December 31st
We have seen a slew of companies extending status, free night certificates and minimum spending dates. American Express was the first lender to extend their minimum spending dates 3 months for cardholders. Chase followed soon after and then Bank of America but Capital One may have out done them all. Even though they are a little late to the party my buddy Joe surprised me with his Cap One data points. They extended the minimum spend time frame all the way out until the end of the year, but maybe with a catch.
Details
Joe signed up for the massive 200,000 point offer from Capital One a few months ago. The terms were that you needed to spend $50,000 within the first 6 months to get the full bonus. Joe’s 6 months was coming up next week and he was still several thousand dollars short of the goal. His business has been put on hold for the most part during the pandemic so he asked Capital One for help. He called in and two days later they gave him an answer. The offer was more than generous. Capital One was willing to extend the minimum spend requirement until December 31, 2020. That is amazing!
Joe’s friend also reached out about the same offer and they offered him the same extension.
The Catch
Joe said that the downside is that they will have to wait for the bonus to be applied to their account because Capital One creates a ticket system for these special cases. They have the ticket marked to be reviewed on January 2, 2021 to manually add the bonus. He wasn’t sure if he completed the spend before then if he can have them manually check and add the bonus early. Since he was only a few days away from getting nothing he wasn’t too concerned about it.
Final Thoughts
That is a pretty amazing gesture of good will by Capital One. They have been doing similar things for current cardholders opening up redemptions for food delivery apps and streaming etc.
I am not sure if this extension is just for business cards or if personal cardholders will get the same offer. I would assume that Capital One will give personal cardholders something if you reach out though. Hopefully they come out with a blanket rule for everyone soon like most of the other major lenders have.
A big thanks to Joe for sharing his data points.
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So it’s not automatic? You have to call in and request it?
Yeah at this point you have to call in and request. Hopefully they make it a policy soon like Chase did after requiring people to call in.
Curious… Have you ever seen anything about what percent of the time new cardholders do NOT complete their required spend? I’m sure it’s really low in our group, but how about with the “regular” people.
This is a good move on C1;s part.
1) The spend being spread out may increase the likely-hood of the card staying in the wallet.
2) It has low cost for them (assuming you would have completed the spend anyway).
3) They get to delay the payout of the bonus. Maybe delays the acquisition cost into 2021.
4) It’s great PR in general, and may lead to improved customer loyalty.
I have no idea what that number is but I would be very curious to see it. I bet it is higher than we imagine it being. I agree it is a good move all around on Cap One’s part, especially if they really do push the payout into 2021 – that would be sneaky genius for their books.