Capital One Venture Review: Easy Earnings, Effortless Redemptions

A high rewards rate

Branded airline and hotel cards typically earn only 1 point or mile per dollar spent on most purchases other than those you make with the brand partner. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card doubles that rate and keeps it simple. Most purchases earn 2 miles per dollar. You’ll also earn 5 miles per dollar spent on hotels, vacation rentals and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel.

A generous sign-up bonus

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card gives you a head start on your next trip with its bonus offer for new cardholders: Enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that’s equal to $1,000 in travel.

Flexible redemption options

Capital One's rewards program gives you several ways to use your miles for travel:

• Redeem rewards as a statement credit. With this option, you book travel however you want, then redeem miles for statement credit for some or all of the cost. There's no minimum redemption amount, and Nerds who have the card say your miles are worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed this way. That's a welcome difference from some other cards, which have minimums as high as $100. Any expense that Capital One considers "travel" is eligible for redemption. This includes not only flights and hotel stays, but also "rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and time shares," according to the Capital One website.

• Book through the issuer's travel center. This online portal offers flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. You can pay upfront with your miles, at a rate of 1 cent per mile.

• Transfer miles to partners. Capital One lets you transfer your miles to the loyalty programs of a number of airline and hotel partners.

Travel-friendly perks

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card offers additional benefits frequent travelers will enjoy:

• A statement credit of up to $120 for the application fee for Global Entry or TSA Precheck.

• Premium benefits when you book a hotel stay through Capital One's Lifestyle Collection like a $50 experience credit, complimentary WIFI and room upgrades when available.

• Trip protection including rental car coverage, trip interruption/cancellation coverage and round-the-clock travel assistance services.

• No foreign transaction fees for overseas purchases.

(Note: Benefits may change over time.)

» MORE: Capital One credit cards mobile app review

MORE NERDY PERSPECTIVES

Fewer perks than the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a solid choice for most travelers. But if you want heftier perks, it's worth considering the card's higher-end sibling, the $395-annual-fee Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees). Both cards earn similar rewards on most purchases and offer a statement credit to cover the cost of TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. But the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card makes up for its higher annual fee with some significant perks:

• Access to Capital One Lounges and more than 1,300 Priority Pass lounges (according to the issuer's website).

• Up to $300 annual credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel.

• 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary.

It might feel a bit off-putting to pay hundreds of dollars a year just to carry a credit card. But as long as you don't mind booking travel through the issuer, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card's perks easily offset the higher annual fee.

Lack of domestic transfer partners

For travelers who like to squeeze every last drop of value out of loyalty programs, the growing roster of transfer partners for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is appealing. You can now transfer your Venture miles to more than a dozen airline partners — but most are non-U.S. carriers. In fact, JetBlue is the only domestic airline. For those just dipping their toe into transfer options, sending their miles off to a foreign carrier may be a bit daunting.

For these travel hackers, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a better choice. First, there's an option to transfer points to participating frequent traveler programs at a 1:1 ratio and those programs include domestic carriers United, Southwest and JetBlue, as well as the Marriott, Hyatt and IHG hotels programs. You can also use your points to book a trip directly with Chase's travel tool. If you choose this route, your points rise in value from 1 cent apiece to 1.25 cents.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card also offers a great sign-up bonus: Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. It earns bonus rewards in a variety of popular spending categories, including dining and travel. The annual fee is $95.

Poor cash-back option

If you want to use your miles for cash back or a statement credit for non-travel purchases, your miles are worth only half as much as if you were to redeem them for travel, according to NerdWallet's analysis. This can be an issue if you don’t travel often and want to turn your rewards into money in your pocket. You may get greater value out of a cash-back card like the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card, which offers 2% cash back on all purchases with a $0 annual fee.

Annual fee

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has an annual fee of $95 (see rates and fees). While this is typical for travel rewards cards, that’s not comforting news to anyone trying to keep credit card costs down. The $0-annual-fee Wells Fargo Autograph® Card earns 3 points per dollar on several popular spending categories:

• Restaurants.

• Travel and transit.

• Gas stations and EV stations.

• Popular streaming services.

• Select phone plans.