I recently visited a Capital One Cafe for the first time, and figured I’d share my thoughts. Maybe you’ve seen a Capital One Cafe before, and have wondered what exactly that is. Or maybe you’ve never heard about Capital One Cafes, in which case you may also be wondering why a bank has cafes.
Continue reading: My Experience Visiting A Capital One Cafe
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The one in Brickell is always packed, so many ppl use it as their office away from home. Delta management would be freaking out if they saw that cafe “we’re not wework!!!”
Capital One is such a puzzling company. In the Wash DC area, they have dozens of former Chevy Chase Bank branches that sit closed or mostly underutilized for years. They have never fixed their branding issues around the "360" product. If you go into a branch, they limit wire transfers to a ridiculously low $ limits or refuse them entirely, refuse to do notarizations even for a simple bill of sale or power of attorney and hold deposits for a ridiculously long times, even ACH deposits. (8 calendar days for a ACH transfer into my 20 year old Cap One account with a balance of several times the transfer) Their branches are mostly useless since they won't provide typical branch banking services.
What really annoys me is their pitch for the Cap One Venture X card. As my home airport is IAD, I got the card hoping for access to the new lounge in "Spring 2022" which became "Summer 2022" which is now looking like "never" since there is no construction going on in the lounge. Classic bait and switch!
Why do they think a Cafe is going to help them do more banking business?
Had no idea capital one cardholders get 50% off. With enough visits, that can pay for the annual fee itself!
Virgin Money here in U.K. have a similar concept and for an av geek the London Haymarket near to Piccadilly Circus is a treat as downstairs they have set up a mock Virgin Atlantic plane interior with the very first Upper Class seats from the 80’s were you can sit and watch projected clouds out the windows, there are also a few Upper Class suites and free refreshments.
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Photos/Virgin-Money-Office-Photos-IMG658811.htm
I had no clue that they offered the 50% discount, that definitely makes a Capital One card more appealing to me as I have a café near my office in ATL and the ones in PBI and RIC (x2) are potentially convenient for some of my recurring biz travel.
Agreed! I'm surprised this isn't in the collateral for the card. Good opportunity to drive customers into an area where there is upsell for CapOne products... odd they'd miss something like that.
We have one in Portland catty corner to Pioneer Courthouse Square. PCS has music on summer days. I go over to Capital One Cafe to use the bathroom. It's lovely. Of course I always get an iced tea or coffee. (50% off with card.) And if they have a treat I want. Sometimes they have free treats!
Next time I'm getting financial advice for my son's predicament.
The cafe concept came with the ING Direct purchase... Someone must have thought enough of it to expand it. Perhaps they actually had meaningful data from the existing cafes?
Walked past one in Boston a few times as it was outside my hotel and couldn’t work out what the catch was. Nice to know there isnt one.
They have (had? I haven't been in a while) one in San Francisco ... the coffee used to be free. A nice place to stop once you understand how it works.
Santander bank also has a Cafe in nyc Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, nice and quiet spot to work with a good vibe
I often go to the one in Valley Fair Mall in San Jose, CA. It’s a nice place to sit and with 50% off it’s the best deal there.
For Capital One banking customers, they have the greatest ATMs I’ve ever seen. You can get $5s, $20s, even $100s, in any assortment you choose. Deposit a stack of cash in any denomination and it’ll count it, and if you deposit a check your receipt will contain a little picture. I’m sure some other banks do this but none I ever did business with. And yes, good coffee, half price.
I have visited the Miami cafe at Brickell and the one at lincoln Road Miami Beach many times.
Find the Peets coffee far better than one gets at Starbucks and the physical layout of the cafe is more spacious and feels less crowded.
The baristas and staff are all friendly and helpful.Finally the 50% reduction is an added bonus.
Funny, I was just in my local Capital One Café a few hours ago. Pre-Covid I was a frequent visitor, but they were closed for a while and never completely recovered.
From what I have observed, the fundamental problem is that they don't know what they want the Cafés to be used for, and who is welcome/not. Is it an urban lounge for Capital One customers? Is it a WeWork for Capital One customers? Is it a coffee shop designed to grow Capital One product awareness from non-customers? Is it an in-person customer service channel? They seem to want it to be all of the above, but instead at least the ones in Chicago are successful at none. The coffee bar doesn't have the staffing to compete with Starbucks, and is actually Aramark not Peet's. The staff are incredibly friendly, but have no access to your account and cannot actually help with an issue.
One of the locations was unfortunately next to a high school, and it was overrun daily with students after school. They never bought anything from the coffee bar, and were not Capital One customers. They just hung out in the "nooks" and chilled. According to the premise of the Café, this was theoretically fine, except the kids turned off other patrons and had no intention of opening accounts. Thus the Café now closes when their school gets out, so the kids can't come while still welcoming anyone on paper. The downtown location has issues with homeless people coming in- same situation.
In my opinion, they should become urban versions of the Capital One Lounge in DFW- exclusive clubs for Capital One customers to refresh when traveling/working, maybe do some remote work, connect with the brand, and access ATMs/support. Outside guests can visit as part of a meeting with an ambassador to learn more about the Capital One products, not just for any reason.
There is a promo going on in July/August...All handcrafted iced drinks are $1 Friday-Sunday. I got an iced cappuccino at the Miracle Mile cafe in Coral Gables last Saturday. It was great!
The CapOne Cafe is nice. I frequent the one in WPB But have visited others as well. My only gripe is that parking to get to these is consistently annoying. They're in outdoor strips which means you often have to park 2+blocks Away and often pay for parking. Not a big deal if you're going to walk the shops after, but a very different story if you simply want coffee on the way to work.
Is a sneaky way to offer a discounted service but also making it a bit difficult for customers to really use the service.
Yes. There are usually 2 or 3 CapOne representatives there who will guide you through the process. In most locations they have tablets.
CapOne generally does not give a different bonus or perk when you apply there versus on your own at home.
NYC horrible(ditto NJ & Conn).
Capital One acquired ING over a decade ago & slowly proceeded to shutter their cafes until only 1 remains: Union Square.
Initially they announced expanding them, but all I remember is a couple of branches- not many- having a few seats next to a small self-serve coffee machine.
To be fair: dense city- riff-raff always within walking distance \ neighborhood seniors claim all the seats early and keep them all day. McDonald's would also boot them: one\two buy senior price coffee, the others bring their empty saved cups - all share that + a giant 99ç cookie bag. Then, when coffee finished, ask for free cups of water.
Then COVID hit and City imposed a merry go round of shutdowns \ re-open \ then coupla weeks later re-shutdown... Entire food courts & malls went under. The remaining- even at airports, are mostly half-shuttered & limited hours. Most non-upscale food joints have subdivided into multiple takeout-only stands. Many of the rest rope off their seating area or a portion of it. Anything with seats is overwhelmed.
Large, spread out, non-quarantine cities seem more amenable.
I've been a Cap One customer since 2012 (credit card) and savings account since 2015. I visited a Cap One cafe in Chicago with my daughter, as I was dropping her off at college and she needed a checking account. The cafe was large, clean, quiet even with a lot of people there. The ambassadors were super helpful. I'm a Cap One fan and hope they continue opening these cafes up. Good job Cap One!
Ben:I’m glad you had a nice experience with capital one 360 cafe,(the banking concept invented by former ing bank) because the t v advertisement of capital one cafe gives you the impressions that you were visiting a cellular phone store,not a restaurant.But I’m also glad that you could go to their bank and not be pressured into buying things that you don’t want to buy, because I’m a former 5/3 bank customer and the reason why? For ten years I’ve visited other 5/3 offices the managers and other employees always annoyed me by trying to sell me investments that I simply couldn’t afford.and after I closed my account with 5/3 bank, when I opened a money market account with State Farm bank, I got the same nagging problem,buy this,buy that, I told a coworker how online banking isn’t different from brick and mortar banking.First they try to sell you things in person,Now they pressure you to buy insurance and investment,over the phone and by u s postal mail .so as long capital one doesn’t cross the line on selling you all sorts of products,then they’re thumbs up with me too.
I love going to capital Bank Cafe in kansas city Missouri on country club plaza. Very good interior.and quiet. Now they have changed from Peet to verve coffe and staff all new but great drinka
However, I finally decided at lunch try this flatbread being advertised. With pe a to, tomatoes and arugula. Now it's so.wwhst square or rectangle shaped and did taste okay. But don't think I would buy again. Wasnt worth the price $7.90.
I was in a Capital one café in Manhattan around 60th St. and Lexington Avenue. I wanted to use their restroom and they were very gracious about that even though the attendant there used a Spanish word or some other word instead of the word # to punch in the code. Natural, I was going to buy something. At first, I was told that with the Capital One card I would get things half off but the barista told me that it was only for beverages. OK. So I bought a muffin that said it was $4 but when they rang it up it came to $5.06. I said is that with the tax which is a little not nice because usually the price next to the item is the price you pay. He said yeah, but then when I walked out the store I realized that the tax couldn’t have accounted for the $1.06 extra. I don’t know what it was that he charged me-was it a tip? The tax amount couldn’t have been more than 10% which would’ve been $.40 so what was the extra over $.50 for?. I didn’t have a good feeling about it when I left. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was the principal that I Was bamboozled.
I purchased a vehicle from a car dealership. They help me get a loan through Capitol One. I tried to log in to make my frist payment. I was having trouble. I called the customer service, after going to the prompts. Begging to speak to a real person.I finally got to a real person and still no help.
I went to the Capitol One café in Kenwood Mall. Rachel greeted me at the door with a smile on her face. She asked how can I help you. I told her my problem she said. " I can help you with that" A few minutes later I was walking out with a smile on my face,with all my issues resolved. Thank you very much Rachel. Outstanding customer service.