Capital One Venture X Business Card review: Business travel MVP?

The Venture X Business card carves out a niche in the high-end business card marketplace, delivering exceptional rewards value and travel perks at a lower cost than many luxury business travel cards.

Rewards: Ideal if you value simplicity

The Venture X Business card’s rewards rates aren’t a huge step up from the rates you’ll find on other Capital One business cards, but they could be a great fit if you’re looking for a simple way to earn miles on most of your business purchases.

Along with 5X miles on flights and 10X miles on rental cars and hotels booked through Capital One Travel, you’ll earn a flat rate of 2X miles on all general purchases, which should make it easy for a wide range of small-business owners to squeeze value out of the card. You won’t have to worry about tracking or enrolling in spending categories and can easily rack up miles on everyday business expenses and travel booked outside of the Capital One portal.

You also have the option to redeem miles for travel purchases made in the past 90 days, allowing you to book where you prefer, including directly with airlines and hotels or via a third-party travel site. This flexibility could make Capital One miles more appealing than the rewards you’ll earn with other issuers.

Perks: Valuable travel benefits at a relatively low cost

Like the personal version of the Venture X, the Venture X Business card focuses on valuable, practical travel perks instead of the niche credits and memberships you’ll find on some premium travel cards.

For starters, you can take advantage of up to $300 in annual travel credits and 10,000 bonus miles each year on your account anniversary — together worth around $400 if you redeem the miles for travel with Capital One (or potentially even more with the right airline transfer partner). These travel credits can also cover a wider variety of travel purchases than the credits you’ll find on some competing cards. For example, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express boasts a long list of travel perks, but you can only use its $200 annual travel credit to cover airline fees.

The Venture X Business Card is also one of the few business cards that comes with complimentary airport lounge access, offering Priority Pass Select and Capital One Lounge membership. In fact, the Venture X Business card’s lounge access perks are second only to the Amex Business Platinum Card’s comprehensive Global Lounge Collection access – and that card carries a $695 annual fee. Plus, despite its lower cost, the Venture X Business card carries great Travel & Emergency Assistance Services and Purchase Security, including first-class cellphone protection.

Not many business cards come with this many annual credits, airport lounge access and top-tier travel protections, so the Venture X Business card’s perks stand out as some of the best available.

Welcome offer: Ultra-valuable bonus for a business card

The Venture X Business also pulls ahead of the competition with its sign-up bonus — one of the most valuable sign-up bonuses currently available on a business card. You can earn 150,000 miles after a $30,000 spend in the first three months. Even though that's half of the card's previous limited-time offer of 150,000 miles by spending $20,000 in your first three months as a card member, plus another 150,000 miles if you spend $100,000 total in the first six months (totaling up to 300,000 bonus miles), the current bonus is still terrific if you can meet the (admittedly massive, even for a business card) spending requirement.

Capital One miles are worth 1 cent each when you you redeem through Capital One Travel, so 150,000 miles could be worth a whopping $1,500 in travel. Based on Bankrate's latest credit card mile valuations, Captial One miles can be even more valuable when you transfer to the right airline or hotel partner. We estimate Capital One miles are worth around 1.7 cents each on average when you transfer points to one of the issuer's top travel partners, so the bonus could be worth around $2,550 with the right booking. 

This could even beat out the value offered by the Amex Business Platinum card's bonus, which, until recently, reigned supreme in the business rewards card market (150,000 points after you spend $20,000 on purchases in your first three months as a card member). Based on Bankrate's point valuations, which give Amex Membership Rewards an average value of 2.0 cents each, we valued this offer at around $3,000. 

That said, since the Venture X Business card's bonus spending requirement is so high, many small-business owners may struggle to take full advantage. If you don't have many big business expenses on the horizon, a card with a lower bonus spending requirement may be a better fit.

While the Venture X Business card’s rewards and perks should make its annual fee easy to offset, the price tag may still be too high for some small-business owners.

And though the card’s perks are solid, it doesn’t carry the longest list of travel benefits or redemption options out there. If you’re focused on luxury perks or want the option to redeem for travel and cash back without sacrificing point value, another card may be a better fit.

Rates and fees: Limited payment flexibility and intimidating annual fee

If your business expenses only amount to a couple thousand dollars per month or you rarely travel, the Venture X Business card’s $395 annual fee (See Rates & Fees) may be hard to offset via rewards or perks.

Although the card offers plenty of practical perks and versatile rewards that make its annual fee easy to justify, many cardholders simply won't want to worry about offsetting such a high cost and may prefer a mid-tier travel card or a simpler, no-annual-fee cash back card. Meanwhile, since the card carries no ongoing or intro APR, you won't be able to strategically carry a balance to free up cash flow or chip away at expenses over time. Keeping a balance past the due date could result in a 2.99 percent late payment fee — which could be a hefty penalty.

On the plus side, there aren’t many other costs to worry about . There are no foreign transaction fees on purchases abroad (the norm for premium travel cards) and you won’t have to worry about owing interest since you’re required to pay off your balance in full each billing cycle. 

Other features: Only a few luxury and business perks

Though the Venture X Business comes with plenty of great travel perks like airport lounge access and credits for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, its low cost requires some compromises.

The card is missing some of the luxury perks you can find on cards with an annual fee of $500 or more, such as complimentary airline or hotel elite status. The card may also fall short if you’re interested in business-centric bonus categories and features.

For example, the Amex Business Platinum boasts hundreds of dollars worth of annual credits toward Dell products, Indeed recruiting, Adobe services and wireless providers.

Payment flexibility: No preset spending limit, but can’t carry a balance

If you need a lot of purchasing power, the Venture X Business card may be appealing since it has no preset spending limit (the amount you can spend varies based on factors like your credit profile and your account standing). You can even increase your purchasing power through positive activity, like making multiple payments within a billing cycle. Capital One also makes tracking your spending limit easy with its helpful “Confirm purchasing power” tool, which allows you to input a dollar value and check whether you’ll be approved for that purchase.

However, unlike some other cards with no preset spending limit, this card doesn’t give you the option to carry a balance. You must pay off the card in full every month or you’ll face a late payment fee based on a percentage of your balance. 

While carrying a balance can get expensive, it may be necessary to do so short term in a pinch. So if you need both large purchasing power and the flexibility of an ongoing APR, the Venture X Business may not be the best fit compared to rivals like the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card and other high-tier Amex rewards cards.

The Venture X Business card not only carries terrific first-year value via its sign-up bonus, but also boasts some of the best ongoing rewards rates and perks you can get on a premium business travel card. As long as you travel regularly, this card should offer great value in both the short and long term.

The card’s sign-up bonus is worth more than the bonuses you’ll find on most business travel cards, and the value you’ll get by redeeming the intro offer for travel bookings with Capital One is enough to offset the annual fee almost four times over.

Even after the first year, the card’s ongoing rewards and perks make it well worth the annual fee. The annual travel credits and account anniversary bonus miles alone can be worth around $400, and you’d only need to spend about $1,700 per month with your card to earn enough rewards alone to cover your annual fee (assuming you redeem through Capital One Travel).

Based on our card rewards value methodology, a $100,000 estimated annual spend (enough to meet the current bonus spending requirement if you can manage it in your first six months) and a 1-cent-per-mile redemption value, here’s a look at how much we estimate you could see in your first year and beyond with the Venture X Business card:

Bankrate credit cards writer Ryan Flanigan uses the Capital One Venture X Business Card’s status as a charge card to his advantage.

The giant sign-up bonus from this card was enough to practically finance an entire cruise for my family. And redeeming points for past travel purchases on my statement is one of my favorite ways to use Capital One points since I don’t have that feature on other cards. The travel credit comes in handy for rental cars and other out-of-the-box travel needs, the anniversary bonus offsets the annual fee, and having no preset spending limit helps with my business needs. It more than pays for itself every year.

— Ryan Flanigan, Writer, Credit Cards

The Venture X Business card’s main draw is how widely its well-rounded and cost-effective perks appeal to small business owners with a range of expenses. However, there are a few alternatives worth considering if you’re hesitant about a high annual fee, you need buying power specifically for large purchases or even if you just want the option to carry a balance in a tight spot.

All of Capital One’s business cards are flat-rate rewards cards, so you can expand your search to other issuers. A rewards card with categories that reward your biggest business expenses is ideal, or potentially a hotel or airline card if brand-specific benefits would improve your travels.

The Venture X Business caters to small business owners looking for higher-caliber travel rewards and perks than a $95-annual-fee-tier card, but don’t need a premier card with a $500 or higher fee. However, the card’s straightforward rewards and perks suit it for many annual expense ranges.

Like the personal version of the Venture X, the Capital One Venture X Business offers terrific rewards and perks at a reasonable cost. Though it carries a high annual fee, this is easy to offset with just a couple of the card’s valuable perks. Benefits like airport lounge access and travel credits are especially hard to find on business cards at this price, making the Venture X Business an ideal business travel card.

There are some trade-offs, however. The card’s sign-up bonus, though impressive, requires a ton of spending in a short timeframe. And though there’s no preset spending limit, you won’t be able to carry a balance, limiting the card’s value as a financing tool.

Still, this card is a clear winner for business travelers. As long as you can pay your balance off in full each billing cycle, the Venture X Business card should be a great fit, making it easy to earn rewards and unlock great travel perks without paying a huge fee.

Our proprietary card rating system takes into account a mix of factors when scoring business credit cards, including each card’s rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more.

We analyzed over 50 of the most popular business credit cards and scored each based on how its key features stacked up compared to those of other cards in its category.

Here are some of the key factors that gave this card its score:

*For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.