December 17, 2024: The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card offers 2x Capital One miles on every purchase, but we think that most would be better served by either a 2% cash back credit card or the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
Our quick take on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
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The signature feature of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is earning 2x miles per dollar spent on every purchase. Miles can be redeemed for travel or transferred to partners. That sounds great, but there are better alternatives in either case.
There are a few ways to redeem miles for travel with this card: You can use your miles to book through the Capital One portal directly or you could redeem them for statement credits to offset travel purchases at 1 cent per point. Either way, you’re getting at most the equivalent of 2% cash back while jumping through several hoops. That’s not compelling when you can earn 2% cash back directly with a card with no annual fee.
If you’re a power user of transferable points who would transfer Capital One miles to transfer partners, you’re likely to do better with the Venture X, which also earns 2x miles per dollar. Sure the Venture X costs $300 more per year, but you’d likely easily make use of the $300 travel credit of the Venture X, plus the 10,000 annual bonus miles that that card offers, and even if you only use the included airport lounge access a handful of times, you’re getting much more than $300 of marginal value out of the upgrade.
One complaint we have about Capital One cards in general is that, while Capital One publishes its cards’ guides to benefits, it doesn’t tell you before you apply how the card will be issued. Whether your card gets issued with the Visa Professional or World Elite Mastercard, or something else will dramatically change the benefit set you get, so we can’t really say anything about the card’s benefits other than what’s on the Capital One landing page.
Ultimately, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card that really doesn’t have a compelling value proposition relative to what else is available. Depending on how you’d use the card, you’re almost certainly better off with either the Venture X or a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card.
Pros
- 2x miles everywhere.
- Large new cardmember bonus relative to the annual fee.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Extended warranty.
- Travel insurance protections.
Cons
- No good cash back redemption option.
- No specifics on promised benefits.
- $95 annual fee.
Sign-up bonus: Lots of transferable points
Annual fee: annual_fees
Best sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply.
This bonus is earned as Capital One Venture miles.
Rewards: Market leading rewards at grocery stores, plus other bonus categories
The Capital One Venture Rewards card offers increased earnings for select travel bookings through Capital One Travel, listed below.
Hotels booked through Capital One Travel: 5 miles per dollar
Rental cars booked through Capital One Travel: 5 miles per dollar
All other purchases: 2 miles per dollar
How to use Capital One miles
You can get maximum cash back from Capital One miles by redeeming them as cash back credits that offset travel purchases charged to your card. If you want to increase the value of your miles, you can. All the details on the best uses of Capital One miles are in our Guide to Capital One Miles.
Benefits: Limited benefit information available before you get the card
Unlike other issuers, Capital One doesn’t say much about the benefits offered on most of its credit cards. Here are the benefits that are promised with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card:
- $50 experience credit on Lifestyle Collection bookings made through Capital One Travel.
- $120 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® once every 4 years. You must charge your application fee to your card.
- Hertz Five Star Status is complimentary as a benefit of your card. You must enroll in this benefit.
- Auto rental collision damage waiver.
- Travel accident insurance.
- Extended warranty.
The details of the benefits will vary depending on whether the card is issued as a Visa or MasterCard, and which type of Visa or Mastercard it is issued as. You can find Capital One benefit guides here, but you will only find card-specific guides for a few cards. Capital One advises cardmembers to consult the guide to benefits that comes with their card for details on the specific benefits that they are provided.
Bottom line: Card needs a compelling reason to exist
If you prefer cash-back rewards or simple travel redemptions, you’re almost always going to be better off with a 2% cash back card. On the other hand, if you find Capital One’s travel transfer partners useful, you’re likely to get much more than $300/year of marginal value out of the Venture X. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card isn’t a bad card, but it sits in a weird space where almost everyone has a clearly more compelling option.
