Updated November 22, 2011: The Capital One® Venture(SM) Rewards Credit Card is the focus of some pretty good credit card commercials. It also happens to be one of the best overall rewards credit cards available. In this credit card review, we’ll take a look at the features that make this one of the best credit cards for people who want to earn frequently flyer miles and explore who can benefit most from Venture Rewards.
Capital One Venture Rewards Overview
The rewards element of the Venture card is clearly the key component (and the reason those Vikings get so worked up). It is also very good. With the Venture credit card, you earn 2 miles for every dollar you spend. Because Capital One Venture miles are worth one cent a piece and can be redeemed like cash towards travel purchases, this is essentially a 2% cash back credit card that pays you in miles.
The Venture rewards card does come with a $59 annual fee that is waived the first year. This is lower than most airline specific credit cards and, for those who don’t like math, works out to $5 a month. In order to break even, i.e. earn enough Venture Miles to offset the annual fee, you need to spend $3,000. Every dollar you spend after that is all profit.
Additionally, Capital One is now offering a 10,000 Venture mile bonus to new applicants. This bonus is worth $100 and combined with the first year annual fee waiver, eliminates the cost of being a card member for about three years. You can learn more about this special bonus incentive by reviewing the card table below.
Using the credit card rewards calculator on CardWisdom, I ran a few tests to see how much can be earned in rewards with the Venture card. (I encourage you to test it out yourself using your budget estimates to get a better idea of how much you can save.)
The first test I ran was for a relatively high spending family of four. I included every purchase that can possibly be made on a credit card, from groceries to cable bills. The total spending added up to $33,540 (the money goes fast) and, after subtracting the annual fee, these expenses would net $610 worth of Capital One miles. Not too bad.
I then tested a more modest budget of $20,000. This netted $340 worth of miles. Again, nothing to shake a stick at. Finally, I tested the card for a very modest $10,000 a year in annual spending. After the annual fee, the total rewards take drops to $140.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card vs the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card
While the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card gets the cool commercials, Capital One offers a similar no annual fee credit card, the VentureOne Rewards credit card. This card offers 1.25 miles for every dollar spent.
Before I ran this card through the rewards calculator, I had expected it to be fairly competitive with the standard Venture card due to its lack of an annual fee. However, the numbers told a different story.
With the no annual fee VentureOne credit card, a person who spends $33,540 a year will earn $190 less than they would with the Venture card. A person who spends $20,000 earns $90 less. However, the amount you can earn on the VentureOne card is pretty close to what you can earn with the Venture credit card with $10,000 of annual spending. Thus, if you spend $10,000 or less every year, I would recommend going with the no annual fee VentureOne card. You can review the details below:
Another key difference between these two cards is 0% interest rates. The no annual fee VentureOne card has a 0% introductory rate on purchases while the Venture credit card doesn’t have an intro rate. Anyone who plans on carrying new balances or using this credit card for an upcoming large purchase might want to consider getting the VentureOne card and upgrading to the Venture later on.
Final Thoughts on Capital One Venture Credit Card Offers
The Capital One Venture rewards program is superior to just about every single airline miles reward program, particularly for those who want low or no annual fees. While I am fond of the Delta Skymiles credit card and the Continental credit card because they offer free checked baggage, those cards come with higher annual fees and the miles can be more difficult to redeem, especially with the Continental card. Plus, with either of those cards, you are putting yourself in a position where you have to seek out flights from one airline, as opposed to any airline, and you might end up paying more for tickets just to get a flight on the airline your credit card is tied to.
Ultimately, the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card presents a great opportunity for anyone who spends $10,000 or more a year to rack up miles. However, if you spend less than $10,000, save the $60 annual fee and go with the VentureOne card.
The Capital One® Venture(SM) Rewards Credit Card is an excellent credit card for racking up frequent flyer miles and compares favorably with just about every airline credit card on the market. If you spend $10,000 or more a year, this card is an ideal choice, particularly for international travelers, as it charges no foreign credit card fees.
The Capital One® VentureOne(SM) Rewards Credit Card won’t earn you as many miles as the Venture card, but is excellent for people who spend less than $10,000 a year or who want to take advantage of a 0% introductory interest rate on purchases. Like the VentureOne card, it also charges no foreign transaction fees.
For more information on these credit cards and to apply online, please see the Capital One credit card section of Card Wisdom where you can compare interest rates, fees, and get up to the minute details on nearly 100 credit card offers.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you still offering the promotion where I can get a card and roll-over up to 100,000 miles?
Capital One ended the Venture Card match my miles promotion late last week after reaching the maximum miles for the giveaway.
Although the Match my Miles promotion is now over, Capital One recently added a 25,000 miles bonus worth $250. This is available to new applicants starting today.
On the Venture Rewards Card, how many miles before you can get
a domestic flight and an international flight?
Mary,
The good thing about the Venture Card is that you can use your miles as credits against travel purchases at a value of one cent per mile. Thus, if you find a flight for $200, you can redeem 20,000 miles for the flight. If you only have 10,000 miles, you can get a $100 credit against the flight. Its not like an airline card where you need 50,000 miles to qualify for a flight. You use your miles like cash to offset travel expenses.
Hope this helps.
After reviewing ~10 of the most popular cards, I found 2% venture the best option. The main reasons
1) every purchase qualifies for mile credit – no hidden rules or exceptions (even if you pay monthly utility bill)
2) spending miles is easy as well – credit any of travel related expenses OR purchase travel products (hotel, flights, etc) directly from their website – mile credit works like money (unlike some other cards which have some interesting conversion miles – > money) rules. If you see flight for 500$, 50k miles will buy it.
3) Its Visa Signature which automatically comes with some Visa benefits (see visa web page for more details)
4) no international currency conversion fee – this is good if you travel (some might argue that Capital uses currency conversion rates which works in their favor, but I haven’t found this the case. rates are fair plus you do not see 50 annoying fees transactions on your statement when coming back from the trip.
hope this helps.
Mike,
You presented a very good case. This is really like a 2% cash back credit card with lots of great perks. I typically don’t recommend cards with annual fees, but this card is a big exception, as you can earn more with the Venture Card than you can with nearly all cards out there. The only caveat is that if you spend less than 10,000 a year, you can earn the same or slightly more with the VentureOne Card and not have to worry about the annual fee.
I’m new to this, I’ve never had a credit card with the sole intention of buying airline tickets. My girlfriend and I will be living in separate cities for the next year and we want to be able to see each other as often as possible. So, I’m trying to decide if getting one of these credit cards will help me possibly gain a free visit. Flights from RSW (Fort Myers, FL) to PHL (Philadelphia) and vice versa are generally in the $250-350 range. Say I make the trip 1x/month for a year at approx 300/flight = $3600. This is obviously below the $10,000 reference figure you used above. Do you think the VentureOne would be a good option for me? Do you think it is worth me getting it, i.e. do you think based on what I’ve said that I’ll gain anything from having it? Thank you very much for any advice.
Jordan,
If you used the card for everything, you’d probably go well above the 10k figure. The key is to use your card for every purchase and pay your bill in full every month. If you only use the card for flight purchases, you’re definitely better off with VentureOne as you’d earn $45 in rewards vs. only $13 with Venture after the annual fee is subtracted. But if you spend $1,000 a month on other purchases that can be charged, you’d earn $253 with the Venture Card after fees as opposed to $195 with the VentureOne card. Plus you’ll get 10,000 bonus miles, which adds another $100 to your rewards take the first year. Hope this clears things up.
Upon retiring, I’ll soon be paying $1,000 per month for medical insurance. Will payments made monthly be acceptable by the rewards program?
Absolutely Charles. All purchases earn double miles, so you can earn $240 in rewards just on your insurance payments.
I am hoping that I can pay all my bills with this card, but my main concern is that some of my bills with various financial institutions only accept payments by card in the form of cash advances. Do cash advances count towards the rewards also?
Zane,
Never use this or any other card for a payment that would count as a cash advance. First, you would have to pay a 2-5% cash advance fee, which would completely negate any rewards. Second, you don’t get rewards on cash advances. And lastly, if you do a cash advance, the interest kicks in immediately, so even if you pay your bill in full every month, you’ll still get slapped with interest on the cash advance.
Here is an older article I wrote on cash advance credit cards. The premise is pretty simple. Never do cash advances.
Thank you for your quick and detailed response. =)
No problem, Zane. I try to my best to help out and really appreciate it when guests return to let me know I’ve been helpful.
I’m not sure if I should get the Venture Card or the Venture One card. I spend about $15,000 a year on my card. Would love to know your thoughts…
Lela,
At $15,000 you’d earn $300 (less the $59 annual fee) or $241 net with the Venture Card. With Venture One, you’d earn $187. Thus, as long as you consistently spend in the 15K range, you make out 30% better with the regular Venture Card.
I did the math, and it looks like the break-even point on the Venture vs. VentureOne debate is $7866.67. That is, if you spend more than $7866.67 per year, it makes more sense to get the Venture card. If you spend less, save the $59 annual fee and go with VentureOne.
Adam,
Thanks for crunching the numbers. Much appreciated.
I currently do not use credit cards, though I do have several. When I do use the cards, they are paid off immediately. I was wondering if I would be able to use the Capital One Venture Rewards Card to pay ALL of my bills (including mortgage, car payments, utilities, etc.) and also my daily expenses, and still collect miles for these charges. If this is possible, I could rack up a significant amount of miles. Thank you.
Julie,
Charging everything to the Venture card and paying it in full every month is the absolute best way to rack up miles. As to some of the expenses, the mortgage in particular, there may be a fee associated with paying by credit card, so I would check on that. The same may be true with the car. Otherwise, you could use the Venture card to pay for most bills and all everyday expenses and end up with a large supply of miles plus the $250 worth of miles awarded at sign-up.
Does balance transfers count towards the rewards on the Venture One card?
Maddie,
The Venture One card does not offer a 0% rate on transfers and to the best of my knowledge, I do not believe these transactions earn points either.