Capital One® Credit Card
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Overview
Card Rating*:
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is one of the best travel credit cards on the market, primarily because of its 2 miles per dollar rewards rate, modest annual fee and flexible redemption options. You can redeem your miles for just about any kind of travel you purchase with the card, or you can transfer them to one of Capital One’s travel partners. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review
*Card Rating is based on the opinion of TPG’s editors and is not influenced by the card issuer.
But no card is perfect, and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is no exception. If you want opportunities to earn bonus rewards on certain spending categories, more travel-related perks or different transfer partners, compare the card with other options, including the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Pros
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Earns 50,000 bonus miles when you spend $3,000 on purchases within three months from account opening
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Offers 2 miles for every dollar you spend
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Awards 10 miles per dollar for hotels booked on hotels.com/venture through January 2020
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Provides an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck
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Allows mile transfers to partner travel loyalty programs
Cons
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Charges a potentially high APR, ranging from 17.49% to 24.74% (variable)
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No introductory APR promotion on purchases or balance transfers
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No bonus rewards categories
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Annual fee is waived only in the first year, then it is $95
Highlights
- Enjoy a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $500 in travel
- Earn 2X miles on every purchase, every day.
- Receive up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓®
- Fly any airline, stay at any hotel, anytime; no blackout dates. Plus transfer your miles to over 12 leading travel loyalty programs
- Miles won’t expire for the life of the account and there’s no limit to how many you can earn
- Named ‘The Best Travel Card’ by CNBC, 2018
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 intro annual fee for the first year; $95 after that
Capital One Venture Card Review: More Details
With a flat rewards rate on all purchases, the Capital One Venture Card makes racking up miles to use for your next vacation a breeze.
Good sign-up bonus
The Venture card is currently offering 50,000 miles to cardholders who spend $3,000 in the first three months of approval – worth around $500 when redeemed for travel purchases. If you are looking for quick influx of miles, this is one of the most valuable sign-up offers currently available among rewards cards.
The Venture card offer is not the most lucrative bonus available, however. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, for example, is offering 60,000 points for users who spend $4,000 in the first three months – worth up to $750 in travel if redeemed through the Ultimate Rewards portal. The spend threshold for the Sapphire Preferred’s bonus is a little higher, so you’ll have to be able to spend a bit more in the first few months to qualify.
Earning Venture miles
The Venture card makes it easy for users to rack up plenty of miles, offering 2 miles per dollar on every purchase. While most travel rewards cards only award more than 1 mile per dollar in particular bonus categories, the Venture card offers its 2 mile-per-dollar rate on all purchases. This makes it easy to rack up plenty of rewards without having to carefully weigh your spending to a particular card. If you are the kind of spender who likes to use one card for all your purchases, the generous rate on everyday spending is a major perk.
What are Venture miles worth? – Capital One Venture Rewards Credit
For the most part, miles you earn on your Venture card are worth 1 cent per mile, making it easy to keep track of exactly how much you have to spend. As long as you redeem them for travel – either through the Capital One Travel Center or for any previous travel purchase using the Purchase Eraser – you get good value out of your rewards.
Among rewards cards, this mile value is about the middle of the pack. If you don’t mind more maintenance, you can get a better value with cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, that offer a higher point value when you redeem points a certain way or generous bonus categories.
Redeeming Venture miles – Capital One Venture Rewards Credit
Capital One miles are some of the most flexible rewards currency available. Unfortunately, you won’t get quite as much value out of those rewards depending on how you redeem them. While it is easy to use miles to cover any travel purchase you’ve made on your card (including unconventional purchases like UberEATS orders), cash redemption options eke less value out of each mile.
| Redemption option | Mile value (cents) |
| Travel purchase in Capital One Travel Center | 1 |
| Outside travel purchases using Purchase Eraser | 1 |
| Gift card | 0.8 – 1 |
| Statement credit | 0.5 |
| Check | 0.5 |
To get the most value out of your miles, save them for travel purchases. With the Purchase Eraser, redeeming your miles for these purchases is simple. When you log into your account on the Capital One website or app, you can choose the option to redeem a purchase to view all eligible travel costs from the last 90 days. When you choose one of the options, you’ll receive a statement credit in the amount of the purchase.
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