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The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card is a no annual fee credit card that routinely manages to claw and scrape its way into just about every “best travel credit cards” conversation.
The card doesn’t offer a huge bonus. It doesn’t offer jaw-dropping return rates for your spending. Why is it so popular?
It’s because the card punches well above its no-annual-fee weight class. If you’re new to travel hacking, it’ll give you a taste of the “free travel” life without any financial investment from you.
Its rewards are very easy to use, as well. You can use them to effectively “erase” travel purchases like airfare, hotels, rental cars, etc. from your statement. Or you can do more intricate things to get outsized value from them, such as converting them into airline miles or hotel points for (nearly) free airfare and hotel nights.
Let’s examine the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card to help you decide if it belongs in your wallet.
- Best for: Beginners wanting to learn points and miles
- Annual Fee: $0
- Regular APR: 19.99% - 29.99% (Variable)
- Reward Rate: 1.25X - 5X
- Recommended Credit: 670-850
Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card
20,000 Bonus Points
Offer Details:
20,000 bonus points after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from card opening.
Why we like it
The Capital One VentureOne is an excellent card for those taking more deliberate steps into the world of travel rewards thanks to its lack of annual fee and flat-rate earning. Cardholders earn 1.25X miles per dollar spent on all purchases, plus 5X miles per dollar on travel purchased through Capital One. Its 20,000-mile welcome bonus is also solid for a no-annual-fee card.
Reward details
5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
1.25 Miles per dollar on every purchase
Pros & Cons
Pros
Its flat-rate earning system makes the VentureOne an easy option for earning miles on all types of spending. While not as high of a rate as its sister cards, it may be the right option for some lower-spending users.
No annual fee makes it fairly risk-free for learning how to transfer points to travel partners and maximize the value of your rewards
The 20,000-mile intro bonus is worth $200 when used directly on the Capital One Portal, and even more when transferred to an airline or hotel partner. With only $500 of spending required to receive the miles, that’s a wonderful 20% return.
No foreign transaction fees. This is fairly uncommon for a no-annual-fee card.
Cons
Earning rate isn’t huge
- Big and moderate spenders can earn more points elsewhere
Cash-back cards may be more lucrative
Welcome bonus
The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Card comes with 20,000 bonus Capital One miles after you spend $500 on purchases within three months of opening your account. There are two reasons this bonus is particularly good.
First, the $500 spending requirement is super accessible. If you put at least $167 in expenses on your credit card each month, you’ll be able to earn the bonus.
Second, Capital One miles are versatile. You can use them to get $200 worth of free travel, or you can redeem them in other ways to get more value—like converting them into airline miles for cheap flights or transferring them to hotel programs for free hotel stays. You could quite easily get $500 or more in value from the welcome bonus alone by using it this way (we’ll cover this in more detail below).
Earning rewards
The Capital One VentureOne has a very simple earning structure. You’ll earn:
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels and car rentals reserved through Capital One Travel
- 1.25X miles per dollar on all other purchases
Most travel rewards credit cards offer healthy bonus categories for everyday spending. It’s not uncommon to see cards offer 3X points (or higher) for things like dining, groceries, streaming services, etc. However, almost all of these cards earn just 1X points for any spending that doesn’t fall into a bonus category.
The fact that the Capital One VentureOne has a minimum earning rate of 1.25X miles per dollar means that it’s a better option to pay most of life’s expenses than most competitors.
If you value simplicity, you may also appreciate that you won’t have to keep track of bonus categories.
Redeeming rewards
The Capital One VentureOne earns flexible rewards which can be extremely simple or moderately difficult to redeem—depending on how much value you’re trying to get from them.
Below are the most popular ways to redeem miles.
Transfer to partners
This is one of the only no-annual-fee credit cards that allows you to transfer points directly to airline and hotel loyalty programs. That’s a big deal.
Other no annual fee credit cards earn travel rewards, but you’ll often need to pair them with an annual fee-incurring credit card to unlock the ability to transfer points to travel partners. For example, the Citi Double Cash Card earns Citi ThankYou points, but you can’t transfer them to airlines and hotels unless you also have either the Citi Premier Card or the Citi Prestige (not available to new applicants).
The Capital One VentureOne has the power to convert its rewards into airline miles and hotel points all by itself. Below are its travel partners (along with current transfer ratios):
- Aeromexico (1:1)
- Air Canada Aeroplan (1:1)
- Accor (2:1)
- Avianca (1:1)
- British Airways (1:1)
- Cathay Pacific (1:1)
- Choice (1:1)
- Emirates (1:1)
- Etihad (1:1)
- EVA Air (2:1.5)
- Finnair (1:1)
- Flying Blue (Air France and KLM) (1:1)
- Qantas (1:1)
- Singapore Airlines (1:1)
- TAP Air Portugal (1:1)
- Turkish Airlines (1:1)
- Virgin Points (1:1)
- Wyndham (1:1)
Strategically transferring points to the above programs is often the most valuable use of your miles.
For example, you could transfer 15,000 miles to Wyndham to book a night at a one-bedroom Vacasa vacation rental property—many of which can easily cost $300+ per night. Or, you could transfer that same 15,000 miles to Turkish Airlines for a round-trip economy flight to anywhere in the US (including Hawaii) on United Airlines. Transfer 25,000 miles to Turkish and you could get a round-trip flight anywhere in the US in first class on United. This could save you $600+ or $1,200+, respectively, depending on your origin and destination.
Those are just a few examples of what you can do, but there are countless fun travel trips you can book with Capital One miles.
“Buy” travel
If transferring rewards to airlines and hotels sounds too complicated (it certainly can be frustrating sometimes), there are two foolproof methods to still get free travel from your miles. Both offer a redemption value of 1 cent each.
The easiest way is to simply use the Capital One VentureOne to book travel. As long as the expense codes as travel (think things like airfare, hotel/Airbnb stays, cruises, rental cars, train tickets, etc.), you’ll have the ability to “erase” the transaction from your statement up to 90 days after the purchase.
For example, if you spend $210 on airfare, you can go to your Capital One online account, find the $210 transaction, and use 21,000 Capital One miles to cover the cost via a statement credit as though you were never charged!
Alternatively, you can book your travel through Capital One Travel (an online travel agency similar to Hotwire or Expedia). You can book that same $210 flight for 21,000 points—and your card will never be charged (though you won’t earn miles for your purchase, either).
Cash back and gift cards
When redeeming Capital One miles for gift cards, you’ll receive a value of 1 cent per mile. That’s a reasonable redemption, as you’ll get the same value when using miles to “buy” travel.
However, redeeming Capital One miles for cash is a notoriously poor value. You’ll get just 0.5 cents each when doing this. Don’t cash out your miles unless you absolutely have to.
Benefits and Perks
No foreign transaction fees
Many no-annual-fee credit cards charge a fee (often 3%) just for the privilege of swiping your card outside the US. The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card waives this fee, which could save you a significant chunk of money if you do a meaningful amount of spending during your travels.
Rental car insurance
The Capital One VentureOne comes with secondary rental car insurance. This means that when you decline the car rental agency’s in-house CDW and pay with this card, you’ll be covered against theft and damage up to the cash value of most cars. Because the coverage is secondary, it’ll only reimburse you for things that your primary insurance provider will not.
You’ll receive primary insurance when traveling internationally.
Travel accident insurance
When you pay for your travel with the Capital One VentureOne, you’re covered up to $250,000 in the event of death, dismemberment, or loss of sight/speech/hearing due to a common carrier like airlines, cruises, etc.
Extended warranty
If you use your card to purchase an item with a US manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less, you’ll automatically receive one year added to that warranty.
0% intro APR
The Capital One VentureOne comes with 0% intro APR for 15 months on both new purchases and balance transfers. After that, you’ll pay between 19.24% and 29.24% variable APR, based on your creditworthiness. This is handy if you’ve got a large purchase on the horizon and want to pay it back over time with no interest fees during the intro period.
Capital One Entertainment
Capital One offers intermittent promotions through its proprietary entertainment portal to receive exclusive access to various events and presale privileges to popular concerts and shows. You’ve got to have a Capital One card to get these deals.
There are even occasional offers outside Capital One Entertainment. For example, ticket sales to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour to Capital One cardholders before anyone else.
Is the Capital One VentureOne right for you?
Again, this card is a solid choice for anyone dipping their toe in travel rewards for the first time. It provides you with the ability to experiment with transferring rewards to airlines and hotels without paying an annual fee. Or you can redeem your miles in a more straightforward manner at a rate of 1 cent each to offset almost any travel expenses.
However, you should consider another card if either of the following situations apply to you.
- You have no interest whatsoever in transferring miles to travel partners.
- You are primarily interested in earning cash back.
There are plenty of cards that earn unlimited 2% cash-back on all purchases, such as the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card. A card with an earning rate like this is superior to the Capital One VentureOne for anyone planning to redeem points for 1 cent or less.
By utilizing transfer partners, your miles could be worth 2 cents or more—making this card’s 1.25X return rate potentially far above 2% back. But redeeming miles for things like gift cards, cash-back, or to “erase” travel purchases will guarantee that same 1.25X return rate will net you a maximum of 1.25% back.
Final Points
The Capital One VentureOne doesn’t offer the biggest return for spending; it doesn’t have the most valuable travel benefits; its sign-up bonus isn’t worth $1,000+ (which we’re quite used to seeing from rewards credit cards, nowadays). But it’s got some pretty spectacular attributes:
- It earns easy-to-use rewards at a respectable rate.
- It gives you the ability to transfer your points directly to airline and hotel loyalty programs.
- It doesn’t charge an annual fee.
For anyone new to travel rewards credit cards, this is a great, low-stakes card to begin with.
- Best for: Beginners wanting to learn points and miles
- Annual Fee: $0
- Regular APR: 19.99% - 29.99% (Variable)
- Reward Rate: 1.25X - 5X
- Recommended Credit: 670-850
Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card
20,000 Bonus Points
Offer Details:
20,000 bonus points after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from card opening.
Why we like it
The Capital One VentureOne is an excellent card for those taking more deliberate steps into the world of travel rewards thanks to its lack of annual fee and flat-rate earning. Cardholders earn 1.25X miles per dollar spent on all purchases, plus 5X miles per dollar on travel purchased through Capital One. Its 20,000-mile welcome bonus is also solid for a no-annual-fee card.
Reward details
5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
1.25 Miles per dollar on every purchase
Pros & Cons
Pros
Its flat-rate earning system makes the VentureOne an easy option for earning miles on all types of spending. While not as high of a rate as its sister cards, it may be the right option for some lower-spending users.
No annual fee makes it fairly risk-free for learning how to transfer points to travel partners and maximize the value of your rewards
The 20,000-mile intro bonus is worth $200 when used directly on the Capital One Portal, and even more when transferred to an airline or hotel partner. With only $500 of spending required to receive the miles, that’s a wonderful 20% return.
No foreign transaction fees. This is fairly uncommon for a no-annual-fee card.
Cons
Earning rate isn’t huge
- Big and moderate spenders can earn more points elsewhere
Cash-back cards may be more lucrative
by your friends at The Daily Navigator
