Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card review: A low-cost travel card with a few good perks

The Discover it® Miles is similar to the VentureOne, as it offers a flat rewards rate, no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees and an intro APR offer. It includes a lower APR range and a higher flat rewards rate of 1.5X miles (versus 1.25X miles with the VentureOne). Plus, you can convert the miles you earn to cash back at a 1:1 rate to pay your bill, including your minimum payment, which is uncommon for travel mile rewards and not a perk you’ll receive on the VentureOne. 

On the downside, the Discover it® Miles doesn’t have a high-earning bonus category to help you earn miles faster (although the VentureOne’s Capital One travel category is pretty limited). You’ll also have to wait for your welcome bonus, as Discover matches all the miles you earn at the end of your first year. It can be worth the wait, though, since this first-year offer could provide far more value. 

The biggest drawback of the Discover it® Miles might be the issuer’s lower international acceptance rate.  If you plan to use the card abroad, you may have a hard time finding merchants that accept Discover credit cards. 

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is the older sibling of the VentureOne Rewards card. At the cost of a relatively low $95 annual fee (See Rates & Fees) and no intro APR offers, you’ll get a better rewards rate of 2X miles per dollar on all purchases along with the same 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

The Venture card also comes with better first-year value thanks to a bigger sign-up bonus: earn 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening, plus receive a one-time $250 Capital One Travel credit in your first cardholder year – that’s equal to $1,000 in travel. 

But for some travelers, the Venture Card’s higher flat rewards rate and sign-up bonus will offset the annual fee and provide greater value than the VentureOne.

If you’re loyal to Capital One and spend a lot on food and entertainment, the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card can earn you an unlimited 3 percent cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and grocery store purchases (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target), plus 1 percent on all other purchases. This card’s elevated rewards rates on dining and entertainment could be a great addition to your travel spending since you’ll earn higher rates on these purchases than you would with just the VentureOne while still not having to worry about foreign transaction fees (See Rates & Fees)

If you want to boost the rewards you earn for your everyday essentials, the high-earning rewards categories of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express pair up nicely with the VentureOne. The Blue Cash Preferred earns an impressive 6 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000 per year, then 1 percent) and select U.S. streaming services. You’ll also get 3 percent back on transit and U.S. gas station purchases, followed by 1 percent back on all other eligible purchases. Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or at Amazon.com checkout.

When used together, these cards become a powerful engine for earning rewards on daily expenses. The Blue Cash Preferred does come with a $95 annual fee ($0 intro annual fee for the first year, see rates and fees), similar to the Capital One VentureOne’s premium counterpart (See Rates & Fees). But with regular spending in elevated reward categories, you can easily offset this annual fee. 

High-priced travel credit cards often come stuffed with travel credits and plenty of other perks that can justify a hefty annual fee. If you don’t travel frequently or you wouldn’t make use of all the extras, the VentureOne is a low-cost option that still allows you to earn rewards on travel. The card has no annual fee, making it one of the most cost-effective travel cards. You can also use it to earn travel rewards for everyday purchases, like gas, groceries and dining. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

We use consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to get a reliable third-party measure of people’s spending habits. The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $5,700
• Dining out: $3,600
• Entertainment: $2,400
• Gas: $3,100
• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance.

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards.

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value.

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee.

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score.

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less-than-standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits.
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges.
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection.
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

The Capital One VentureOne can be either a Visa card or a Mastercard. In fact, several Bankrate staff members have experienced this firsthand. Our editor, India Davis, received the VentureOne as a Visa card, while writer, Seychelle Thomas, received it as a Mastercard. This won’t change important card details, but there may be slight variations in some network benefits and international areas where your card is accepted may slightly differ depending on whether your VentureOne is a Visa or a Mastercard. 

 However, Capital One’s acquisition of Discover could result in the VentureOne and other cards transitioning to the Discover card network by late 2024 or early 2025, which could also reduce this card’s international acceptance.

As our editor India Davis explains:

“The Capital One VentureOne was my first credit card along with my first chance at building credit. When I first opened the account, I was given a $2,000 credit limit, perfect for the travel purchases I was making at the time. This limit stayed the same for a few years, which was fine since my use of the card slowed down after the first couple of years. Later on, as I began to use it more and kept up with my payments, I was eventually upgraded to an $8,000 credit limit, which is much better for where I am in my credit journey now.”