Capital One Venture Rewards Visa Signature Review
Updated February 22, 2018.
The Facts
The Math
This is essentially a 2% rewards card with a $95 annual fee. In comparison, two of our favorite cards Fidelity Visa and Citi Double Cash both offer 2% cashback without an annual fee. In addition, Alliant Visa Signature offers 2.5% cashback with a lower annual fee ($59, also waived for the first year).
Venture vs. VentureOne: Since Venture has a $95 annual fee, you need to spend $12,667 per year to better out VentureOne ($12,667 x 0.75 mile/$ x 1 cent/mile = $95).
The Conclusion
With the demise of Charles Schwab Visa in 2011, Capital One gained great market share with its Venture card. However, in today's market where there are quite a few cards that offer at least 2% cashback, Venture doesn't look as attractive as before, especially after the annual fee increase in 2017.
The Facts
- Annual Fee: 1st year first, $95 thereafter
- Signup Bonus: 50,000 miles ($500 in travel) after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening. Please keep in mind that unlike other credit card issuers, Capital One pulls all three of credit reporting agencies when you open a new account. Historical best bonus of this card: 100,000 miles in 2012.
- Application Landing Page
- Rewards: 10x hotels.com through January 2020, 2x everything
- Best Use of No Hassle Miles: First of all, these miles are what I call "fake miles" since they are not associated with any frequent traveler programs. This is rather a rewards program by Capital One and there is also no transfer feature (into frequent traveler miles/points). For your information, please see three most popular programs with transfer feature in our featured review SPG vs. MR vs. UR. You can redeem your miles for travel, gift cards, merchandise and cash back at up to 1 cent per mile.
- Other Benefits: No foreign transaction fees. No over-limit fees.
- Other Facts: Don't confuse this card with the non-fee VentureOne Rewards Visa Signature which offers 1.25 miles on everything.
- The History: The hugely popular FIA Charles Schwab Visa which offers unlimited 2% cash back without a annual fee and foreign transaction fees was discontinued to new applications in 2010 while keeping existing customers. Capital One rolled out its Venture trying to fill the gap. In August 2011, FIA started replacing the existing cards with BofA cash rewards cards (1% on general spending) and we were not surprised to see many FIA card members picking up Capital One Venture. The annual fee is increased from $59 to $95 in 2017.
The Math
This is essentially a 2% rewards card with a $95 annual fee. In comparison, two of our favorite cards Fidelity Visa and Citi Double Cash both offer 2% cashback without an annual fee. In addition, Alliant Visa Signature offers 2.5% cashback with a lower annual fee ($59, also waived for the first year).
Venture vs. VentureOne: Since Venture has a $95 annual fee, you need to spend $12,667 per year to better out VentureOne ($12,667 x 0.75 mile/$ x 1 cent/mile = $95).
The Conclusion
With the demise of Charles Schwab Visa in 2011, Capital One gained great market share with its Venture card. However, in today's market where there are quite a few cards that offer at least 2% cashback, Venture doesn't look as attractive as before, especially after the annual fee increase in 2017.
