Our Verdict
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (rates & fees) gets you close to your next adventure with strong and simple rewards for those with Excellent, Good credit who are willing to fork over the $95 annual fee.
Pros
- Straightforward and generous rewards rate
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® statement credit (up to $120)
- No foreign transaction fees
- Miles are easy to redeem either via partner transfers or by applying against travel purchases
Cons
- $95 annual fee
- No introductory APR on purchases or transfers
Current Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Offer
- Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you’ll get Capital One’s best prices on thousands of trip options
- Miles won’t expire for the life of the account and there’s no limit to how many you can earn
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®
- Use your miles to get reimbursed for any travel purchase—or redeem by booking a trip through Capital One Travel
- Enjoy a $50 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Lifestyle Collection
- Transfer your miles to your choice of 15+ travel loyalty programs
Alternatives To the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Table of Contents
- Introducing Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture Rewards Fine Print
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Quick Facts
- Who Is the Capital One Venture Rewards Card Best For?
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Score Requirements
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Rewards
- Capital One Venture Rewards Benefits
- How To Maximize Capital One Venture Rewards
- Complementary Cards for the Capital One Venture Rewards
- Our Experience With The Capital One Venture Rewards
- How the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Stacks Up
- Is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card for You?
- Methodology
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Introducing Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a solid, flat-rate travel rewards card. With straightforward, unlimited earning of 5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar spent on Capital One Entertainment purchases through 12/31/25 and an unlimited 2 miles per dollar spent on other purchases, the card makes scoring a pile of miles easy for those who don’t want to deal with activating bonus categories or tracking complicated rewards offers.
Redeeming those Capital One Rewards can be as simple as earning them. However, the best value comes when using miles for travel—either to book a trip through the Capital One portal, transfer points to travel partners or redeem them against a purchase made for travel with the card.
Though reward miles can be redeemed for cash back as a statement credit toward non-travel spending or on purchases through Paypal or Amazon, the value per mile on these redemptions is less than 1 cent. If you aren’t looking for travel rewards, this restriction, plus an annual fee of $95, is a major drawback. Other no annual fee 2% cash-back cards, where you can use rewards any way you please, may be better.
Capital One Venture Rewards Fine Print
Interest Rates
- Regular APR: 19.99% - 29.74% (Variable)
- Purchase intro APR: N/A
- Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
Fees
- Annual fee: $95
- Balance transfer fee: Balance Transfer Fee applies to balances transferred at a promotional rate
- Foreign purchase transaction fee: None
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Quick Facts
- $95 annual fee
- Welcome offer: Earn 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months of account opening
- Earn 5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar spent on Capital One Entertainment purchases through 12/31/25 and an unlimited 2 miles per dollar spent on other purchases
- Foreign transaction fee: None
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fee credit
- Transfer miles to participating member programs
Who Is the Capital One Venture Rewards Card Best For?
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a solid mid-tier travel rewards card which will be a good fit for those who are looking for a travel rewards card without a hefty fee, especially those who are already Capital One customers.
Use Scenario | Best For | Reason |
---|---|---|
Best Flat-Rate Rewards Credit Card | Every purchase earns 2 miles per dollar without dealing with bonus categories or annual caps. | |
Best For Earning Travel Rewards With a Low Annual Fee | Charging just $95 per year, this card outearns many more expensive travel rewards credit cards. |
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Score Requirements
To get the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you’ll need to have an Excellent, Good credit score. While a FICO score of 670 or above is considered good, most issuers consider a score of 740 and above to be very good.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Rewards
Earning Rewards
The Venture card earns 5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar spent on Capital One Entertainment purchases through 12/31/25 and an unlimited 2 miles per dollar spent on other purchases, placing it well on the high-earning end of flat-rate rewards cards. It has no categories or other earning benefits beyond its welcome bonus.
The card features a welcome offer of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months of account opening.
Redeeming Rewards
Reward redemption with the Venture card is, to gain the most value, going to be limited to travel rewards. Redemption of miles via purchases on PayPal.com or for purchases on Amazon.com are possible, but generally these won’t earn the best value. Typically, miles redemptions for purchases on these sites will only earn 0.8 cents per dollar over the 1 cent per dollar value on eligible travel redemptions.
One great benefit of Capital One Miles is the ability to transfer miles to travel partners. Although these redemptions can require more work than redeeming points for previous travel, transferring miles to travel partners can also offer the best values per point.
Rewards Potential
To determine the Venture card’s rewards potential, we look at bonus categories and calculate what an average household might spend in those areas. Forbes Advisor uses data from various government agencies to determine baseline income and spending averages across various categories. The 70th percentile of wage-earning households earns $118,438 annually and has $39,337 in annual expenses that can reasonably be charged to credit cards.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Rewards Potential
Category | Earning Rate | Estimated Annual Spend | Estimated Annual Earnings |
---|---|---|---|
Hotels Through Capital One Travel | 5X | $2,858 | 14,290 |
Rental Cars Through Capital One Travel | 5X | $791 | 3,955 |
All Other Purchases | 2X | $35,688 | 71,376 |
Total: 89,621 Capital One Miles |
Capital One Venture Rewards Benefits
- Access to the Lifestyle Collection. These hotel and vacation rental stays mimic elite status with premium benefits and a $50 experience credit.
- No foreign transaction fees. You won’t pay an additional fee when you use your card abroad.
- Shopping protections. Eligible purchases made with the card receive extended warranties.
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® credit. Application fee reimbursement of up to $120 every four years when you apply for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.
- Emergency card replacement. Get expedited replacement cards as necessary.
- Fraud coverage. Cardholders aren’t responsible for unauthorized charges.
- Travel assistance services. Capital One helps connect you with local emergency and assistance resources when you’re away from home.
How To Maximize Capital One Venture Rewards
The Capital One Venture doesn’t offer annual credits like many other travel rewards cards, so ensuring you gain enough value to make paying a $95 annual fee may be a touch harder than with other credit card options. With decent all-around rewards, the card may make sense if you’re sure you’ll earn more on your purchases with this card than another.
Travel partners are also important: If you often fly or stay with Capital One’s Miles transfer partners, you may reap more rewards from being able to transfer your points and use them on higher-value redemptions with airlines or hotel chains. If transferring your rewards isn’t appealing, there’ll be fewer opportunities to create additional value from your card.
Transfer Partners
Capital One’s transfer options include various airline and hotel loyalty program partners. Points may often be transferred 1:1, expanding the options a cardholder has for redemption:
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Aeroplan®
- Asia Miles
- Avianca LifeMiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- Choice Privileges®
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- Finnair Plus
- Flying Blue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- TAP Miles&Go
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Virgin Red
- Wyndham Rewards
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands*
- ALL – Accor Live Limitless**
*2:1.5 Transfer Ratio
**2:1 Transfer Ratio
An auto rental collision damage waiver, for example, can cover thousands of dollars in damage when you charge the full price of the rental to your card.
Complementary Cards for the Capital One Venture Rewards
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is an excellent option for those who prefer a simplified setup. You can pull the card out no matter where you’re shopping and know you’re earning solid rewards.
If you’d really like to maximize your miles, consider also grabbing the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card. The card charges no annual fee (rates & fees) and earns 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®), 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 8% cash back on Capital One Entertainment purchases, and 1% on all other purchases.
The best part about holding both cards is that the rewards you earn with your Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card can be converted to Capital One Miles and pooled together for maximum potential.
This allows you to earn excellent rewards on many everyday purchases without paying an additional fee. You can then transfer those rewards to hotel or airline partners and redeem them for a much higher value than with cash back.
Our Experience With The Capital One Venture Rewards
I’ve enjoyed holding the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and even prefer it to the more expensive $395 annual fee Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (rates & fees). This is because the Venture earns similar rewards to the Venture X but charges a much lower annual fee (rates & fees).
These days, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is my go-to for all my shopping. Everything I buy from Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco goes right onto my Venture Card. While these retailers offer their own co-branded credit cards, none of them stack up to the double miles I can earn with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
This is largely because the retailer’s co-branded cards cap the earnings I can get. Or, they just earn cash-back rewards, not transferable points. And while cash back is great (who doesn’t love money?), it’s half as valuable as Capital One miles.
After all, I can earn 10,000 Capital One miles by spending just $5,000 on my Venture Rewards card. That’s enough for a flight to Hawaii from anywhere in the U.S. when booking through Turkish Miles&Smiles. And that’s exactly why I keep my Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card at the front of my wallet.
How the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Stacks Up
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
At first glance the Capital One Venture and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card seem quite similar. The Sapphire Preferred also carries a $95 annual fee, multiple transfer partners and no foreign transaction fees, it could be easy to think the cards were identical.
However, where the cards differ is in the rewards structure. While the Venture card earns 5 miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar spent on Capital One Entertainment purchases through 12/31/25 and an unlimited 2 miles per dollar spent on other purchases, Sapphire Preferred cardholders earn 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), 2 points per dollar on all other travel purchases and 1 point per dollar on other purchases. Plus, not all miles are created equal—Chase Ultimate Rewards® can be redeemed for 1.25 cents each through Chase Travel compared to Venture Mile’s 1 cent each value. But Capital One’s Venture Miles can also be redeemed to cover eligible travel purchases from any source.
Compare: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred®
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card vs. Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
With it’s $395 annual fee, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (rates & fees) doesn’t come cheap. But it packs enough benefits to be worth the cost. Cardholders earn 2 miles per dollar on all eligible purchases, 5 miles per dollar on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar on Capital One Entertainment purchases through 12/31/25 and 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars when booking via Capital One Travel. The card comes with $300 back in annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel and a 10,000-mile anniversary bonus (starting on the first anniversary). New cardholders also earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
Other perks include an application fee credit for TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry, Priority Pass and Capital One Lounge access, and cellphone protection. Anyone who can make full use of the benefits can justify the higher annual fee.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card vs. Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (rates & fees) will likely only appeal to those who like the Venture card, but don’t want to pay an annual fee. The VentureOne earns 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 1.25 miles per dollar on every other purchase and offers a smaller welcome bonus: Earn 20,000 miles after spending $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $200 in travel.
The VentureOne has many of the travel benefits of the Venture, including no foreign transaction fees, but it stops short of offering the valuable credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. These tradeoffs make the VentureOne seem like a watered-down version of the Venture, but without the annual fee, the card still remains a worthy contender in a different weight class.
Evaluate Credit Cards Side By Side
Is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card for You?
The Venture Rewards is a phenomenal card for someone who wants to earn flexible rewards at an easy-to-remember flat rate. Since it has a lower annual fee (rates & fees) than its cousin, the Venture X (rates & fees), it makes more sense for someone who might not travel frequently and have the ability to use premium travel perks yet still wants to earn rewards for a future trip.
– Becky Pokora, Senior Staff Writer
Methodology
Forbes Advisor considers a variety of criteria when assigning credit cards a rating. The Capital One Venture Rewards card was graded as a flexible rewards card on the following factors:
- Annual fee
- Welcome bonus
- Ongoing earning rates
- Value of individual points or miles
- Included travel and consume benefits
Card features we expect cardholders to use the most often are weighted more heavily in our ratings. Altogether, the factors come together to provide a star rating for each individual card.
To learn more about our rating and review methodology and editorial process, check out our guide on how Forbes Advisor rates credit cards.
For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the benefits may be provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What credit score is needed to qualify for the Capital One Venture Rewards?
Capital One advertises an Excellent, Good credit score requirement. The company suggests those with “excellent” credit scores are those who’ve never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan, haven’t been more than 60 days late on any credit card, medical bill or loan in the past year and have held a credit card with a credit limit above $5,000 for three years or more. Credit bureau Experian lists an exceptional FICO Score as a score above 800.
How do I qualify for the Capital One Venture Rewards?
You’ll more than likely need to satisfy Capital One’s “Excellent, Good” credit score requirement to qualify for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. This also means you should meet its published requirements: You have not declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan, have not been more than 60 days late on any credit card, medical bill or loan in the past year and have held a credit card with a credit limit above $5,000 for three years or more. You can prequalify for the card using Capital One’s preapproval tool. Although it isn’t a guarantee, it may help give you an idea if you’ll be approved before you apply and receive a hard inquiry to your credit.
How long does it take to redeem Capital One Venture Rewards?
Redemption times vary per redemption method. Redeeming miles for purchases already made on your card wipes them from your statement, but you must redeem the miles within 90 days of the purchase. Making travel purchases through Capital One Travel buys tickets instantly, but cash redemptions may take more time: a statement credit should take two to three business days and a check will be mailed within two to three days but may take two to three weeks to arrive. Point transfers will vary by partner, with some being instant and some taking a few days to complete.
How much are Capital One Venture miles worth?
Though Capital One Venture miles redeemed for travel are usually worth 1 cent each, the value of a point or mile is subjective and often argued about (especially in travel circles). The value of any point or mile is ultimately in the eye of the earner—can it help you reach your goal?
Capital One offers a number of redemption options for miles earned with the Capital One Venture, but not all offer the same cash-equivalent value. Points redeemed for cash are usually worth about 0.5 cents each. Points can also be transferred to Capital One’s partners which could easily offer value of more than a cent per point. To learn more about Capital One’s rewards program, read our complete guide.