Capital One Venture Rewards Card Review

Full Review of Capital One Venture Rewards Card

Pros Explained

• A Single High Rewards Rate With No Cap on Earnings: This card earns 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. Plus, 5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Earn 2X miles on all other purchases, every day. Though other cards in this category pay a similar rewards rate, few, if any, offer such generous rewards for all types of purchases, and without any cap on earnings. Instead, most competitors limit such high rewards earnings to spending on select categories, sometimes with annual or quarterly limits on earnings.
• Generous One-Time Offer: Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.
• Flexible Redemption Option: This card allows you to make travel purchases with any vendor and then retroactively receive reimbursement from your rewards account, at the rate of 1 cent per mile. While eligibility depends on the merchant, reimbursable transactions typically include those for airfare; rail, taxi, and bus fares; limousines and ride-sharing; car rental; cruises; hotels; and timeshares. Cardholders can also redeem miles through Capital One's online travel portal or transfer miles to the loyalty programs of over a dozen partners.

Cons Explained

• $95 Annual Fee: It's not unusual for travel credit cards to come with an annual fee, and this one’s $95 cost is on par with competing cards. Still, paying an annual fee is still less than ideal for consumers who prefer not to track its cost against the rewards they’re earning. There are travel cards, like the Capital One VentureOne, that have no annual fee and offer rewards and one-time bonuses that are respectable, albeit generally a step below those of this card.
• Poor Cash Back Redemption Rate: Miles redeemed for cash back on this card vary and may only be worth 0.5 cents per dollar. That's lower than competing cards with a fee, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which pays 1.25 cents per dollar when miles are redeemed for cash back as of February 2022.  

Who This Card Is Best For

The Capital One Venture card is an excellent option for anyone who wants a brand-agnostic travel card with rewards that are simple to grasp and easy to tally. It pays] 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. Plus, 5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Earn 2X miles on all other purchases, every day.

The Capital One Venture is best suited to those who want to spend rewards directly on travel, rather than other purchases. Travel expenses from any source can be reimbursed—or erased from your card balance, in Capital One’s lingo—using miles, redeemed at 1 cent apiece. Other options for redeeming this card’s miles—like receiving them as cash or transferring them to other programs—are less lucrative with this card than with some others. 

Capital One Venture Card One-Time Offer

Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel. Once you qualify, Capital One will credit the bonus to your rewards balance within two billing cycles.

Of course, the value of miles or points and where they are best redeemed varies by card. With this card from Capital One, miles redeemed for travel are worth a fairly standard 1 cent per dollar.

Rewards Earning Details

This card earns 2 miles per dollar on every purchase, every day, plus 5 miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

Rewards never expire; they remain on your balance for the life of your account. 

Rewards Redemption Details

Miles earned can be redeemed for travel, cash, gift cards, or an account credit. They appear in the form of a statement credit to the rewards balance of your account.

Capital One offers a few different ways to redeem miles for travel.

The first option allows you to pay for travel with a Capital One card wherever and whenever you want, and then later use the value of your points to reimburse yourself for the purchase. Go online to capitalone.com or call the issuer's reward center to redeem miles. 

You can also use miles directly to book through the Capital One Travel Center. You can pay for purchases in miles or, if you need or prefer to do so, a combination of miles and cash. 

Finally, you can transfer miles to the loyalty program of one or more of Capital One's travel partners.

Transferring Points

Capital One has multiple travel partners to which you can transfer points, although almost all of them are fairly small international carriers. Those partners currently include Aeromexico, Air France Avianca LifeMiles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, and others.

The value of each transfer varies for certain travel partners. For most travel partners, the transfer ratio is 1:1, but some travel partners have a transfer ratio of 2:1 and 2:1.5.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

The best way to maximize rewards with this card is to use it for as much of your daily spending as you can. You should also track and try to take full advantage of any time-sensitive programs that offer higher rewards rates.

Since it’s such a generous perk, make sure to capitalize on the 75,000 bonus miles offer by spending at least $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

Finally, be prudent about how you redeem your miles. Redeeming them for cash will yield only $0.005 per mile. Most transfers to your loyalty account at an airline will yield less than a mile for every Capital One mile you send to it. While it might be less lucrative than transferring miles it can certainly be an easier option to simply use your miles to offset travel expenses, from airfare to hotels to bus and taxi fares, and still get a decent value.

Average Case

For a typical household, the Capital One Venture card could fairly easily yield $500, or close to it, in rewards to spend on travel. Here’s the math.

Let's say the card is used to pay for virtually all of a household’s daily spending on food, transportation, clothing, and entertainment. If you're the average family, you'd spend close to $21,500 per year on those items as of 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Broken down, that's $7,316 on food, $1,434 on apparel, $9,826 on transportation, and $2,912 on entertainment.) For $21,500 in spending, you would earn 43,000 miles on the card, which could be redeemed for $430 worth of travel.

And assuming this was the family’s first year with the card, they would readily have earned 75,000 bonus miles by spending $4,000 within the first three months of card ownership.

Even after the first “bonus” year, the family could net $335 or so of value in travel rewards after deducting the $95 annual fee. And that total doesn’t account for the two miles per dollar rewards they would earn over the course of a year if they also used the Capital One Venture card to charge spending beyond that for food, transportation, clothing, hotels, and entertainment.  

Aspirational Case

Above-average spenders at home and frequent travelers could plausibly earn four figures a year in rewards from this card, even after accounting for its $95 annual fee.

For example, let’s imagine a family that spends $4,000 per month on spending on food, transportation, clothing, and entertainment, which is twice the norm, and takes a $2,000 trip twice a year—spending $1,000 on hotels and $1,000 on other travel-related expenses. If all those expenditures were charged to the Capital One Venture Card they would earn 104,000 miles per year.

When redeemed for travel, those points would be worth $1,040. Assuming that this was the family’s first year with the card, they’d have surpassed the $4,000 in spending to earn the 75,000 bonus points in a matter of weeks after receiving the card.

Even after that first 12 months, then, the family could still net around $945 in value every year, even after deducting the $95 annual fee. And that total doesn’t even reflect the extra spending on the card beyond food, transportation, clothing, and entertainment, at 2 points per dollar spent. Or the added value of benefits every four years, like the $100 credit for Global Entry or $85 in credit for TSA Precheck.

Capital One Venture Card’s Outstanding Benefits

• $100 statement credit for Global Entry or $85 credit for TSA Precheck
• Travel accident insurance
• 24-hour travel assistance service
• No foreign transaction fee

Standard Benefits

• Extended warranties
• Fraud protection and $0 fraud liability
• Access to culinary, music, and sporting events 
• Two complimentary visits per year to Capital One Lounges or to 100+ Plaza Premium Lounges through our Partner Lounge Network

Cardholder Experience

Capital One received a rating of 815 in J.D. Power's 2021 customer satisfaction survey, ranking third on the list—above the average of 809.

Customers get access to a host of free tools, including CreditWise, which allows for free credit monitoring.

Capital One has two tools to help its cardholders save money when shopping. Its Capital One Shopping tool scans merchants to help you find the best price before you buy online, while Paribus finds potential savings on online purchases you've already made and gets you money back.

Cardholders can log into their account on the company's website or mobile app to pay their bill or for information and inquiries about their card.

Customer service is available at 800-227-4825 or through physical mail. Unlike most card issuers, Capital One offers no customer service via email or online chat.

Security Features

Capital One offers the typical security perks to keep cardholders safe, starting with security alerts. The issuer will send notifications by text, email, or phone—whatever your preference—if it notices suspicious activity on your card. Other standard perks include $0 fraud liability and the ability to lock your card if it is lost, stolen, or misplaced—and from the mobile app, a mode that isn’t offered by all issuers. 

Capital One also offers Eno, a tool that monitors for duplicate charges, tracks spending, and automatically sends 24/7 fraud alerts. The tool also instantly creates virtual numbers for online shopping.

CreditWise monitors your credit information on the dark web and sends automatic alerts if your email address or Social Security Number is found. The tool also provides information about your credit score and sends an alert when your credit report changes.

Hidden Fees to Watch out For

The Venture Rewards card doesn't have many fees but beware of the $95 annual fee and the $40 late fee.

Final Verdict

High rewards for every purchase, a stellar one-time offer, and stress-free redemption options make this an extremely well-rounded flat-rate travel card. It's a solid choice for consumers seeking a no-nonsense travel card with a hassle-free experience.

It does have an annual fee, but it requires only a relatively easy spend of $4,750 per year in order to break even on the $95 cost. However, the Venture card might not be the best card option for those who seek to transfer points to domestic airline partners—for instance, to combine with the points you already have in those airline programs.

Like many cards that offer extensive rewards, it can be hard to get the Capital One Venture card if you don't have a strong credit score. However, if you are already a Capital One customer or can demonstrate that you have a high income, you may have an easier time qualifying even with a lower credit score.

Most customers will need a good to excellent credit score to qualify for the Capital One Venture card. This usually means a credit score of at least 670.

You can transfer your Capital One Venture miles to more than 15 partner airlines: Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, Avianca, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, EVA Air Infinity, Finnair, JetBlue, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, and Turkish Airlines. The Venture card also partners with many hotel programs.

Rewards points earned through Capital One Venture don't expire. They are available to use as long as your account is open. However, if your account is closed, you will lose any points that you haven't redeemed.