The Capital One Venture Rewards credit card offers a nice blend of value and convenience for cardholders, but it has some shortcomings compared to other cards. The best card for you will depend on various factors, so here are a few things to consider when you compare the Venture Rewards card to other travel cards.
Welcome offer: Steep spending requirement
New cardholders can earn a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within three months of account opening. This bonus is worth up to $750 in travel redemptions when you book travel through the Capital One Travel portal.
Although the current bonus is a step up from the card’s most recent bonus of 60,000 miles (after spending $3,000 within the first three months) it is not the card’s highest offer (100,000 miles after spending $20,000 in your first year) and requires quite a bit of spending to earn a payout that falls short of what you can find on other cards.
The current offer competes with other cards in the $95 annual fee range. For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 60,000 points after a $4,000 spending requirement in the first three months, worth up to $750 when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Additionally, unlike the Venture Rewards Card, you won't need to transfer points to redeem more than 1 cent per point with the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
It’s worth noting the Venture card's welcome offer matches or nearly matches the bonus offered on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. It’s rare for a card with a $95 annual fee to offer a bonus as high as a card with a $395 annual fee, but this might say more about the Venture X card than it does the Venture card.
Yearly perks: Lacks annual bonus points
The Venture Rewards card carries consistent value for purchases with its flat-rate rewards, but it fails to deliver on yearly perks and credits that bring additional value (outside perks with Lifestyle Collection hotel stays). Some cards have annual bonuses for cardholders that can sometimes bring upwards of a hundred dollars worth of value to your card account — just for being a card member or redeeming rewards each year.
For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card comes with a $50 annual hotel stay credit and a 10 percent anniversary point bonus. With this benefit, Chase will reward you on each account anniversary with 10 percent of the points you redeemed in the previous year back. The Sapphire Preferred is just one example, but other travel cards like the Citi Premier® Card and the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card also have annual benefits that can offset their respective annual fees.
Although these cards don’t have the same rewards rates, welcome offers, transfer partners or issuer portals as Capital One, they could be better choices for you if you are looking for a reliable way to offset all of the fees that usually accompany traveling. However, you’ll want to review all of those cards’ details before deciding because an annual bonus is just one feature.
Rewards value: The value of your miles is average unless transferred
According to Bankrate’s latest points and miles valuations, Capital One Miles have a baseline value of 1 cent per mile, which is average compared to other issuers’ rewards. Although Capital One Miles can be worth up to 2 cents per mile when transferred to a partner airline or hotel, you would need to find a valuable transfer partner and finalize your booking during a specific time of year and to a destination where you’ll need fewer miles to cover the cost than you normally would. Unfortunately, this process can sometimes seem like a lot of hoops to jump through.
That said, if you’re looking for a simple, straightforward rewards program with valuable rewards for the easiest redemptions, you might want to consider a credit card with an issuer’s rewards program with a higher baseline point value, like Chase Ultimate Rewards. If you hold either of the Chase premium travel cards, the baseline value of your points can increase up to 1.5 cents per point, giving you top-tier rewards value without any transferring involved.