Is Capital One VentureOne a Good Credit Card?

The Capital One VentureOne Card is the second travel credit card I ever signed up for.

It’s been 7 years since then. 

With this card, I’ve enjoyed discounted trips to:

• Orlando, Florida
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• Cinque Terre, Italy
• Chicago, Illinois 
• Atlanta, Georgia (a couple of times)
• Austin, Texas (also a couple of times) 
• Dallas, Texas (also a couple of times)

I’ve saved hundreds of dollars over the years.

This card is a great entry-level, low hassle card with the following travel perks:

• 1.25 points per $1 spent
• Easy to use in-app purchase eraser 
• 20,000 bonus points after spending $500 in 3 months ($200 value)
• $0 annual fee
• 5x miles on travel booked through Capital One Travel
• Rewards don’t expire for the life of the account

While the bonus is not to the level of other cards, this card is a good option for beginners. 

Over time, using the VentureOne card to purchase everyday items like groceries or to pay bills, points will build up to a nice amount that can benefit your next vacation. 

What are Points worth?

Points are worth 1 cent each. 

Meaning, you’ll earn 1.25 cents towards travel every dollar you spend. 

Today this rate is comparable to other $0 annual fee cards, but when I first signed up, the extra .25 was the edge over other comparable cards. It was this slight difference in points that made me choose to use VentureOne for most of my spending. 

Times change, though, and perks are constantly updating. Check out my head to head review of this card and my other favorite entry-level card, the Discover It Miles card. 

What Are 20,000 Bonus Points Worth?

The 20,000 point sign on bonus is the equivalent to $200. 

That’s easily a flight or two, depending how you work it.  

500,000 points is equivalent to $500 dollars, and so on. 

How to Redeem Points? 

In the Capital One App go the ‘Current Balance’ section, click ‘Rewards Miles’ and choose from the list of ways to redeem your points:

• Book a Trip
• Convert Rewards
• Cover Travel Purchases 
• Redeem with PayPal
• Shop with Amazon
• Get Gift Cards
• Redeem for Cash

Redeeming points can be done in 3 main ways. 

1. You can redeem points for travel booked with the card within 90 days of booking. This route provides a statement credit on your account 2-3 days after erasing those travel purchases. 
2. You can book travel through the Capital One online portal at ‘travel.capitalone.com’. This route is not as beneficial as booking direct through transfer partners as it won’t allow you to double dip and get points from hotel rewards programs. However, you do earn 5x points per dollar spent when not booking with points. 
3. Redeem points for gift cards, using PayPal, or for cash back. 

Who is This Card Best for? 

With many high level travel cards, the sign on bonus comes at the cost of spending a minimum amount in an allotted time. No problem if you are someone who has high bills. 

What’s $4,000 in 4 months, or $5,000 in 3 months? 

Not everyone can make these minimum spends make sense financially, though. 

Even if the sign on bonus is a great deal, it is worthless to overspend, especially on things you weren’t planning to buy, simply to get a couple hundred bucks of rewards. 

And remember, acquiring interest of ANY KIND will make travel hacking quickly turn into a financial disaster. So, you MUST be responsible and organized enough to pay your cards in full every month if you want to benefit from using these cards. 

This is part of the reason why these travel perks can work for the companies. They are banking on users to fall into debt trying to take advantage of these perks. 

If you’re one of these people. Walk away. 

Now, all that being said, the Capital One VentureOne card is a great option for someone who doesn’t have the flexibility to spend thousands of dollars in a short period of time. 

Spending $500 in 3 months is an extremely easy benchmark to hit and pay off responsibly. 

This makes the Capital One VentureOne card best for: 

• Students 
• Young people just starting out 
• Single mothers
• Families looking to stay intentional with their spending
• Retirees who may have a set living expenses in retirement 

The easy access threshold on this card makes it a good choice starting out. 

Airport Lounges 

Capital One has one airport lounge in DFW and two more coming soon in 2022 that will be located in IAD and DEN. 

Can Capital One VentureOne card holders access Capital One airport lounges for free? 

No. 

While these lounges sound like a wonderful idea, they can’t be accessed for free by VentureOne cardholders. You can pay $65 to gain entry, but at that point, it’s not worth it.

Only the top two premium Capital One cardholders can access lounges for free, the Venture X and Venture & Spark cards.  

Booking through Capital One

Tons of hotel, airfare, and car rental partners can be found through the Capital One Travel portal. 

Booking through this portal is beneficial if you can find the deal you’re looking for because you’ll earn 5x points per $1 spent. 

Price match guarantee – If a user books a hotel through Capital One Travel and finds a better deal on a flight, hotel, or car rental on another site in 24 hours, a price match request can be submitted by and Capital One will pay the difference. 

Simply contact Capital One. The FAQ section is helpful and includes a contact number.

Price drop protection – For people who book using the Capital One flight prediction tool, if a price drops after you book during the ‘book now’ recommendation period, Capital One will provide a reimbursement for the difference, up to a predetermined amount. 

95% accuracy is what Capital One claims this tool is capable of and this perk is essentially an insurance policy for people who use it. 

3 Ways to Use Points: Amazon and Gift Cards, Cash Back, and Travel

Using VentureOne points for Amazon purchases or gift card purchases can be an easy way to redeem points. 

The point value for this type of redemption is lower than using points for travel, however. 

According to an article on The Point Guy, points drop from representing 1 cent each to 0.8 cents each when you choose to use them for an Amazon or other company gift card. 

Redeeming VentureOne points for cash back is an option, but devalues points to be worth 0.5 cents instead of 1 cent each. 

The bottom line is, it is best to use points to erase travel. 

VentureOne point values vary based on how you choose to redeem them. 

Here are the three ways and the associated points value: 

• for travel 1 cent each
• for gift cards 0.8 cents each
• for cash back 0.5 cents each

Closing Thoughts

The Capital One VentureOne card is a solid entry level card, but the bottom line question is, how does it measure up to other entry level cards? 

It is worth deep diving into what entry level card will best fit your lifestyle. 

Simply because credit cards programs and perks are always changing. 

When I started using travel cards 7+ years ago, the Capital One VentureOne card was the best for me to use long term due to the 1.25 point rate. 

Now, I have pivoted to using my Discover It Miles card as my go to entry level travel card. 

This is due to Discover Increasing its points value to 1.5 in recent years. 

For more information, check out this article here: 

Capital One VentureOne vs. Discover It Miles Travel Cards.