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The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is a popular travel rewards card with a $95 annual fee (waived the first year) and a very straightforward rewards system. It rivals other top travel rewards credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the British Airways Visa Signature ® Card.
Cardholders earn an unlimited 2X miles on every purchase. Until January 2020, you also receive 10X miles on purchases made through hotels.com/Venture. Miles earned can be redeemed for a variety of travel purchases.
New applicants can earn 50,000 bonus miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.
The Venture Rewards has always been the best for those who want to keep things simple due to its easy rewards program. Recently, it has changed that by adding in the ability to move your miles over to 14 airline partners. It’s still great for using miles to cancel out travel purchases on your statement without worrying about fidgeting with loyalty programs.
However, it now also allows you to diversify your collection of loyalty currencies and redeeming with some top airline programs.
If you’re interested for more offers from Capital One, check out all the ongoing Checking/Savings account bonuses!
Table of Contents
Capital One Venture Rewards Card Summary
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Earning The Venture Rewards 50,000 Bonus Miles
Earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. If you think you’ll have trouble meeting the $3,000 spending requirement within 3 months of approval, below are some ideas that might help:
| • Plastiq: Plastiq allows you to pay for expenses that you generally won’t be able to with your card like rent, tuition, auto lease, mortgage payment, and more. There’s a 2.5% processing fee for using your credit card. However, this’ll be worth the card bonus you’ll get. There’s also a referral program where you can earn “Fee-Free Dollars” to use towards processing fees. See our Plastiq review. |
| • Fund Checking accounts with your card: Many banks will allow you to fund the opening deposit with a credit card. Consider opening Checking accounts that also offer a sign-up bonus. This way, you can work towards bonuses from two different sources. Big banks like Chase, HSBC, Huntington, and TD Bank have great offers and allow credit card funding. You can generally fund anywhere from $50 to $1,000 towards the opening deposit with a credit card, depending on the bank. |
| • Buy gift cards: Consider buying gift cards with your credit card that you can then spend later at your leisure. Individual merchant cards (restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets, etc.) generally don’t have purchase fees, so this is a plus. On the other hand, American Express and Visa gift cards will have purchase fees. Amazon gift cards are a great idea as you can shop for almost anything there with no purchase fees either. Unfortunately, Citi credit cards tend to code gift card purchases as Cash Advances and there’ll be a fee. Call in to customer service and lower your Cash Advance limit to $0 before purchasing gift cards. You can also buy discounted gift cards as well from Raise or find gift cards on eBay. |
| • Everyday spending & bills: Always using your credit card for everyday spending, such as for dining, gas, groceries, etc. You can also use your credit card to pay for things like insurance bills, property taxes and income taxes. However, you’ll have to consider the convenience fees. |
Earn An Unlimited 2X Miles
Earning miles on the Venture Rewards is very straightforward. It’s useful for those who don’t want to carry multiple cards. You’ll earn 2 miles for every dollar spent. There is no limit to how much you can earn.
However, there is one exception to this earning amount. Thanks to a partnership with Hotels.com that runs through January 2020, when you use the Venture Rewards to book and pay for hotels at Hotels.com using hotels.com/Venture, you’ll earn 10 miles for every dollar spent. That’s one of the best bonuses on hotel spending on any credit card in the market today.
In addition, you can participate in Hotels.com Rewards which is Hotels.com’s loyalty program. In this program, you can earn another 10% back on hotel purchases made at Hotels.com. Stacked together with the 10X miles earned on the Venture Rewards, you’re earning a 20% rebate on all hotels purchases at Hotels.com.
Redeem Rewards
Miles earned through Capital One Venture Rewards can be redeemed as account credits towards past purchases (within the last 90 days), your balance, as a check, gift cards, booking a trip, or charity.
The Venture Rewards is well-known for its Purchase Eraser option. This feature allows you to redeem miles to cover eligible travel purchase you’ve made with the card in the last 90 days. Eligible travel purchases include airline flights, hotel bookings or car rentals. There’s no minimum redemption amount. So even if you made a travel purchase for only $1.50, you can redeem 150 miles for it and have it disappear.
Transfer Miles
Recently, Capital One has given the option to transfer your Venture miles to a selection of airline partners:
| Aeromexico Club Premier | Air France KLM Flying Blue | Air Canada Aeroplan |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia Program | Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) | Avianca LifeMiles |
| Emirates Skywards | Etihad Airways Etihad Guest | EVA Air Infinity MileageLands |
| Finnair Plus | Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club | JetBlue TrueBlue |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | Qatar Airways Privilege Club | Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer |
Transfers are at a 2:1.5 (4:3) ratio for all partners. Emirates and Singapore have an exception of a lowered 2:1 ratio. Per these ratios, considering that you earn 2X miles on the card (on non-Hotels.com purchases), you’ll be getting 1 to 1.5 points or miles with an airline transfer partner for every dollar you spend. On Hotels.com purchases, you’ll be getting 5 to 7.5 points or miles with a partner program for every dollar you spend.
Once you transfer your points, there are many opportunities to earn even more value out of your points or miles. The cost in miles for flight bookings varies depending on the destination, time of travel, airline mileage program, etc. However, if you put in the time to search through different booking scenarios with different airlines, you could get much more value with your Venture miles.
However, if you don’t plan on messing with transferring, the more straightforward Purchase Eraser redemption option is always available.
Capital One Venture Rewards Benefits
$100 Global Entry / TSA PreCheck Credit: When you use your Venture card to pay for the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee, you’ll receive a credit of up to $100. Global Entry costs $100, while TSA PreCheck costs $85. We recommend applying for Global Entry since it includes TSA PreCheck.
10X Miles At Hotels.com: Through January 2020, this card will earn 10 miles per dollar on hotel.com stays when you pay with your Venture card. You’ll need to book through hotels.com/venture. It can take up to 2 billing cycles for the full 10X miles to appear in your rewards balance.
No Foreign Transaction Fees: There are no foreign transaction fees with the Venture from Capital One.
Conclusion
Travel rewards cards are often complicated. But, the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card has made earning and redeeming rewards easy. Not only that, thanks to the addition of airline transfer partners, you can make miles earned more flexible.
Between the high 10X earning rate at Hotels.com, a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit, and some nice redemption options with transfer partners, this card has a lot for a $95 fee that’s waived the first year.
If you still want to earn miles but you don’t want to pay an annual fee after your first year, check out the Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Card. However, it earns lower rewards than this one.
If you’re interested in earning cash back or would like other ways to earn rewards, see our complete list of Credit Card Promotions for more!
Other Credit Cards To Consider
Great Bonus Offer & Better Ongoing Rewards Rate Overall:
Travel/Dining Rewards & Sign-Up Bonus:
 The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®! You'll earn 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide; 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. And when you redeem your points for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards, you'll get 25% more value! |
1.5% Rewards, No Annual Fee, Bonus Offer:
Learn more about this card and find out how you can apply here.
The Best Bank Offers are updated here. See the below pages to get started with some of the best offers: • Chase Bank Offers. Chase offers a range of attractive Checking, Savings and Business Accounts. Chase has a great selection of sign-up bonuses in comparison to other big banks. • HSBC Bank Offers. HSBC Bank routinely has offers for several of their Personal Checking and Business Checking accounts. They also have a good referral program. • Huntington Bank Offers. Huntington Bank has high bonus amounts available through their Checking and Business Checking. Huntington also offers a Business Premier Money Market Account. • Discover Bank Offers. Discover Bank offers top cashback, savings, money market accounts and CD rates for you to take advantage of. Discover has industry leading selections to cater to your banking needs. • TD Bank Offers. TD Bank consistently offers a fantastic selection of checking accounts to cater to your banking needs. However, savings account offers are less frequently available. |
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| TD Bank Convenience CheckingSM | $150 Cash | Review |
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| Huntington Bank Unlimited Plus Business Checking | $750 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Unlimited Business Checking | $400 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Business Checking 100 | $200 Cash | Review |
