Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review
Capital One has long prided itself on keeping their rewards program simple and easy for their customers. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card stays true to form with its simple earning structure and straightforward means of redeeming miles for travel. But, these cards can still appeal to a wider, more experienced crowd. In our Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card review we will take a look at the current welcome offer, card perks, earning structure and share our overall thoughts.
Venture Rewards Current Welcome Offer & Annual Fee
The Venture Rewards card currently has the following welcome offer:
- Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months.
- The card has an annual fee of $95 which is NOT waived.
Application Rules
Here are the Capital One applications rules you should be aware of from our guide on all bank’s application rules.
Capital One generally will only approve you for one card every six months. This rule applies to both personal and business cards, meaning you cannot open a personal card and a business card within six months of each other.
Additionally, Capital One has a two-card maximum, regardless of personal or business. It is virtually impossible to hold more than 2 Capital One cards at a time.
We should also note that this card is best to get once you are over Chase 5/24.
Earning Rate
The Venture Rewards card has the following earning structure:
- 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review: Card Benefits
The Venture Rewards card comes with the following benefits:
- Two free Capital One Lounge passes per year
- Discounted admission of $45 per visit thereafter.
- $100 Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit every 4 years.
- No foreign transaction fees
- Extended warranty protections
Venture Card Review: ToP Analysis
Capital One is one of the most recognized names in the credit card world. Many of their ads knock traditional airline miles and credit cards. But what does Capital One do differently that sets them apart?
Travel Redemptions
First, up until just a few years ago, the only way to redeem Capital One miles was to apply them directly to any travel purchase at a rate of 1 cent per point. This was their “simplicity” model that essentially just turns the Venture Rewards into a 2% cash back card, but only for travel purchases. For example, this would make a 75,000-mile welcome offer worth a flat $750 towards travel. That probably doesn’t attract the moderate-to-advanced award traveler long term. For someone who just wants to get a couple free flights or hotel stays, the simplicity could be attractive. We should note, there are other no annual fee 2% back options, that are not limited to travel redemptions. The issue is they often don’t have much of a welcome offer, or a very small one if they do, and there in lies the rub!
Transfer Partner Improvements
The good news is that more recently, Capital One began trying to compete with Chase, Citi, and Amex by introducing airline and hotel transfer partners. Some of their partners offer solid value that will get you easily over 1 cent per point. These include Turkish Miles & Smiles, Wyndham Rewards, Air Canada Aeroplan and Virgin Atlantic to name a few. Almost all of Capital One’s transfer partners have a 1:1 transfer ratio. This is where Capital One may attract more experienced award travelers, who understand the value of transferrable currencies.
Stick To 2X Earning
The elevated earn rate when booking hotels and rental cars through the Capital One travel portal doesn’t do much for us at ToP. When booking through portals like this, you give up elite benefits and points earning with hotels. Also, as with any other online travel agency (OTA), if a problem comes up, you have yet another party to deal with. Instead of working directly with the airline or hotel to resolve your problem, you must also deal with the travel portal service provider.
Offsetting The Annual Fee
Like most cards, the welcome offer more than offsets the annual fee on the Venture Rewards card for the first year. Coupled with a nice earn rate on all expenses, and if you can put the free lounge passes to use, this card presents a good first year value. If you are looking for more of a premium credit card experience check out our review on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Review: ToP Thoughts
Capital One does a great job appealing to both sides of the market with their cards. For experienced award travelers, Capital One is building an appealing transfer partner program. And for those who don’t want to spend time to learn how to best redeem those miles, they have a simple earning and redeeming structure for them as well. Pair that with a very good welcome offer, above average earning structure and a reasonable annual fee and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card makes sense for a lot of people.
