The Capital One Venture Card is sort of a hybrid amongst rewards cards. It’s categorized as a travel rewards credit card, but members can also redeem their reward miles for cash back, gift cards and merchandise. Whatever way you define it, the Capital One Venture Card is one of the best rewards cards in the country.
Capital One Venture Card
The Capital One Venture Card is pretty straightforward. Members receive 2 reward miles for every $1 spent. There are no caps on the rewards that members can receive.
- Named MONEY Magazine’s “Best Rewards Card if you aim to rack up airline miles”
- Get double miles on every purchase, every day
- New accounts get a $0 intro annual fee for the first year
If new cardholders make a total of $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of membership, they will receive a one-time bonus of 25,000 miles.
Redeeming Your Rewards
Miles can be redeemed by requesting a statement credit for any airline travel purchased on the Capital One Venture Card. You must request the statement credit within 90 days of the posting date of the purchased airline ticket.
- After purchasing airline tickets using your Capital One Venture Card, you have 90 days to apply miles for reimbursement.
- Miles can be redeemed for any airline ticket purchase.
- Miles can also be redeemed for cash back, merchandise, and gift cards, at varying exchange rates.
How Much Are Your Rewards Worth?
The value of reward miles is also straightforward: 1 mile is worth $0.01. The Capital One Venture Card works much like a 2 per cent cash back card, with some restrictions on how you can redeem your rewards. Alternatively you can redeem your reward miles for gift cards and merchandise online, although it seems like the redemption rate is much lower.
I spend approximately $2,600 per month on my credit card. Let’s take a look at what my potential earnings will be in the 1st year of using the Capital One Venture Card:
- One-time bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 90 days – 25,000 miles
- $31,200 in annual spending – 62,400 miles
Total reward miles in 1st year = 87,400.
87,400 reward miles x $0.01 = $874. Minus the $59 annual fee and that works out to $815.
Final Thoughts
What I like about hybrid rewards cards like the Capital One Venture Card is the flexibility to redeem your points for travel, merchandise, gift cards and some restricted cash back. Based on my spending habits, this credit card is actually more lucrative for me than the Blue Cash Preferred Card in the 1st year of membership.
My only concern is that I’m not a frequent flyer, and I prefer to redeem my points for straight cash back to help supplement my budget. However, I certainly wouldn’t mind getting a free vacation every year or two with my reward miles.
