Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card: An Inexpensive Travel Companion

The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card offers a good opportunity to bolster your travels with decent rewards and surprisingly useful perks for a card with no annual fee.

It’s a straightforward travel credit card that you can use to earn 1.25x miles per dollar on every purchase, with a greater reward rate for hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. 

The card’s perks are more impressive than most travel cards with no annual fee, as they include a few travel protections like travel accident insurance** and auto rental collision damage waiver**. There are no foreign transaction fees either, so you can use the card outside of the US without worrying about additional costs.

However, because it doesn’t feature any annual travel credits, airport lounge access or, for example, a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit, it’s best used by those who only travel a handful of times each year.

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The rewards offered by the VentureOne are impressive, considering its lack of an annual fee. In addition to its simple structure of 1.25x miles for most purchases, cardholders can earn 5x miles for hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. You won’t have to worry about your miles expiring for the life of the account once you’ve earned them, either. 

After raking in the miles, you can redeem them for:

• Past travel expenses made within 90 days
• Statement credits
• Paper checks
• Gift cards
• Purchases through PayPal and Amazon.com

Miles are worth 1 cent so long as you redeem for past travel expenses. The other redemption options will likely provide a lower per-mile value.

Eligible past travel expenses include airlines, hotels, rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and timeshares.

While redeeming for past travel purchases is the easiest option and a good way to secure a solid return on your travel spending, you could find an even better per-mile value by transferring your miles to one of Capital One’s travel partners. Depending on the transfer ratio, it will likely be worth the extra effort.

Take a look at all of Capital One’s hotel and airline partners, and the transfer ratios to each.

So while Capital One doesn’t have partnerships with many US airlines, international travelers may want to consider transferring miles to find better value.

Capital One Travel

Capital One Travel is Capital One’s travel portal for its cardholders. You can book your hotel, rental car and airline through this platform, but you’ll only earn 5x miles per dollar for hotels and rental cars with the VentureOne.

Cardholders are able to cancel their flights for any reason, get price-drop protection, price match capabilities, and compare prices among hotels and airfare. If you can use it for your hotel and rental car you should, but it also wouldn’t be a bad idea to shop around and compare prices.

Welcome bonus

The VentureOne offers a welcome bonus of 20,000 bonus miles for spending $500 on purchases within the first three months with the card. If you have any planned trips coming up, you could use the card to cover it, and then in return use the bonus miles to fund a part of the trip.

The welcome bonus would equate to $200 if you redeem for past travel purchases, which is likely enough to cover a night or two at a hotel or even a plane ticket depending on where you’re headed.

Introductory purchase and balance transfer offer

The VentureOne offers cardholders the opportunity to transfer a balance from another card that’s accruing interest, or make a large, planned purchase, and pay it down at 0% introductory interest for 15 months (then 16.49% to 26.49% variable). There is a 3% balance transfer fee during the promotional period, but after that period, there’s no fee to transfer a balance.

However, don’t let the lack of balance transfer fee after the promotional period encourage you to make unnecessary balance transfers. Banks make much more money through periodic interest charges at the standard APR than by charging a one-time balance transfer fee.

So if you transfer a balance within the 15 months, you’ll pay a 3% balance transfer fee. But that pales in comparison to the money you could end up paying in interest charges on another credit card.

An introductory purchase APR is a great tool to use if you have any trips planned. You can charge the cost to your card and then pay it down while avoiding interest.

That said, try not to buy anything you normally wouldn’t just because of the introductory APR offers. It can be easy to slip into credit card debt.

Other card perks

The Capital One VentureOne Rewards card offers a surprising number of additional perks for a card that doesn’t ask for an annual fee. 

In addition to the perks listed below, people can access Capital One’s CreditWise tool to monitor their credit score and get help in the instance of stolen identity. CreditWise is free for everyone to use, not only Capital One cardholders.

• Travel accident insurance**: You’re covered against accidental death and dismemberment while traveling. Coverage is up to $250,000.
• Auto rental collision damage waiver**: Decline the rental car provider’s insurance offer and charge the full amount to your card to get coverage against damage and theft. Rental car insurance provided by the card is secondary and will only pay out after your primary insurance policy.
• Extended warranty**: Get an additional year on manufacturer’s warranties of three years or less.

Comparable cards

While the VentureOne presents a good opportunity for the general traveler, it’s not the only affordable travel card on the market.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture Rewards credit card is the upgraded version of the VentureOne Rewards card. As such, it does require a $95 annual fee, but in return it offers higher rewards (2x miles per dollar for most purchases rather than 1.25x) and greater perks.

The additional card perks include an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck and two annual complimentary visits to Capital One’s airport lounge, plus a larger welcome bonus (75,000 bonus miles for spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months with the card).

It packs a bit more of a punch, but because of its annual fee and more advanced travel benefits, it’s better suited to people who travel enough to use everything it has to offer. If you’re on the road enough, consider this version over the VentureOne.

You can learn more in our full review of the Capital One Venture Rewards card.

Discover it® Miles

The Discover it Miles* presents a simple way to earn miles and then use them to fund your travels through statement credits. Use the card for everything to earn 1.5x miles per dollar. But even better, Discover will essentially double the miles you earn for your first year with the card through its Unlimited Discover Match welcome bonus at the end of your first year. There’s even an introductory APR offer for both purchases and balance transfers that matches the VentureOne’s.

It’s an uncomplicated card experience with no annual fee or foreign transaction fees, designed for people who don’t travel too often but want to work toward funding a trip through everyday spending.

FAQs

*All information about the Discover it Miles has been collected independently by CNET and has not been reviewed by the issuer.

**Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. Please refer to your Guide to Benefits for more details.

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