
Sign up & start saving!
Get our weekly newsletter for the latest in money news, credit card offers + more ways to save
finder.com’s rating: 4.4 / 5.0
★★★★★
60,000
Miles as welcome offer
Up to 5x
Miles
$95
Annual fee
17.24%, 21.99% or 24.49%
Purchase APR (variable)
Annual fee | $95 |
---|---|
Welcome Offer | 60,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months plus miles after spending in the first |
Rewards | 5x miles on Uber Eats and 2x miles on all purchases |
Purchase APR | 17.24%, 21.99% or 24.49% variable |
Balance transfer APR | 17.24%, 21.99% or 24.49% variable |
Recommended minimum credit score | 670 |
Issuer | Visa |
Review by
Kevin Joey Chen is a credit cards, banking and investments writer whose work and analysis have appeared on CNN, U.S. News & World Report, Business.com, Lifehacker and CreditCards.com. He's passionate about helping you get your finances in order by expertly navigating cutting-edge financial tools — including credit cards, apps and budgeting software.
Due to its automated preapproval process, Capital One usually makes a decision within 60 seconds. In some cases, it may take up to 10 business days.
Upon approval, expect your card and welcome materials to arrive within seven to 10 business days.
Answer choices | Responses |
---|---|
740-850 | 44.44% |
670-739 | 33.33% |
580-669 | 22.22% |
300-579 | 0.00% |
Answer choices | Responses |
---|---|
Rewards | 48.39% |
Welcome bonus | 12.90% |
Features and benefits | 32.26% |
APR | 6.45% |
In terms of an annual-fee card that offers flat-rate travel rewards, the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is a rare breed. The Barclaycard Arrival® Plus World Elite Mastercard® was once a close competitor, but it’s since been discontinued.
However, we can compare Capital One’s product with another card that sits around the same price point: the $95-a-year Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Chase’s card takes the prize here, offering a similar value with way lower spending requirements.
Capital One’s card offers 2x miles on all purchases, while Chase’s card offers 2x points on travel and dining as well as 1x points on all other purchases.
This may seem like an automatic win for Capital One, but we do need to factor in redemption rates, which you can read more about below. The key thing to remember here is the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card gives you a simple rewards structure, while with Chase’s product you’ll need to pay closer attention to the categories you’re using the card for.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has an ace in the hole: When you redeem your points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, they’re worth 25% more.
That means you can easily earn a 2.5% rewards rate on travel and dining, and a 1.25% rate on all other purchases. Meanwhile, there’s no such boost when you redeem your Capital One miles through their issuer’s portal.
Both issuers allow reward transfers to travel partners. But Chase’s program is superior, letting you transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio instead of the 2:1.5 or 2:1 ratio you’ll get with Capital One.
Overall, you can find higher redemption rates through the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card takes the prize here, as its competitor doesn’t offer the benefit at all. This is one of the sharpest differences between the two cards.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a more impressive suite of protections, including trip cancellation/interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement and baggage delay insurance. However, it doesn’t advertise travel accident insurance, which Capital One offers. Both cards come with auto rental collision damage waivers.
There are airline cards at the $95-to-$99-a-year level, such as the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, United℠ Explorer Card and Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®. Each offers solid mile earnings and great airline-specific benefits, but your rewards won’t be as flexible as you’ll find with the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card.
Apply for the card if you’re a US citizen or permanent resident of the US and you’re at least 18 years old.
You’ll need to fill out personal details, including:
During the application process, you can choose whether or not you want to make a balance transfer, and you can opt to receive further communications in Spanish if that’s your preferred language.
Apply with a good to excellent credit score of 670 or higher. An excellent credit score of 740 or higher will greatly increase your chances of approval. A higher score will also land you with a lower APR and a better credit limit.
Back to topMost customers love the Purchase Eraser perk, the flat 2% return they get on all purchases and they especially love the high credit line they received. The negative feedback revolves around the high APR that some customers received — but if you pay on time, this shouldn’t be a problem.
The Better Business Bureau has accredited Capital One with a rating of A as of October 2020. However, it sports a 1.13 out of 5 when it comes to a customer rating from an average of nearly 500 reviews. It fares little better on Trustpilot, earning a 1.4 rating out of 5 as of October 2020.
The best reason to get the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is its solid reward rate on every purchase. This is ideal if you don’t want to deal with multiple reward tiers for different categories and prefer to keep things simple.
At the same time, you’ll want to watch out for the $95 annual fee, which will effectively reduce the rewards you earn. Additionally, while mile transfers are a nice touch, the transfer ratios can be a drag.
As a rule of thumb, consider this card if you plan on spending $10,000 or more on it. This will easily let you offset your annual fee with your rewards, and give you comfortable mile earnings on top of that.
Not quite what you’re looking for? Check out other travel rewards cards and compare your options before deciding which card to pick.
★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor
Our team evaluates credit cards to determine their value against similar cards on the market.
We rank card types — travel, cash back, business — on a set of factors that are most relevant to that type of card. We create these rankings to help you narrow down a credit card that best suits your spending and budget.
Images: Capital One