Starting Wednesday, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is offering new cardholders a limited-time sign-up bonus of up to 100,000 miles.
Here’s how it works: New cardholders can earn 50,000 miles after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening, then a total of 100,000 bonus miles after spending $20,000 on purchases within the first 12 months of account opening.
Aside from the bonus, spending $20,000 within 12 months earns 40,000 Venture miles, which means a new cardholder could earn up to 140,000 miles in total, between the full bonus and annual spending.
Regular APR
17.24% to 24.49% variable
Credit Score
Good to Excellent
Featured Reward
Earn 100,000 bonus miles once you spend $20,000 on purchases within the first 12 months from account opening (or 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months)
Pros
- No bonus categories to keep track of
- Includes up to a $100 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
Cons
- Other credit cards offer higher rewards in certain categories of spending
- Annual Fee: $95
- Welcome Bonus: 100,000 bonus miles once you spend $20,000 on purchases within the first 12 months from account opening (or 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months)
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How to use Capital One Venture miles
According to Insider’s points valuations, Capital One Venture miles are worth an average of 1.3 cents per mile, so this bonus could be worth up to $1,300.
Cardholders can redeem Capital One Venture miles for vacation rentals like Airbnb and VRBO, as well as for any recent, travel-related purchase such as vacation rentals, flights with any airline, hotels, rental cars, and cruises.
Even if you haven’t been traveling and have no plans to do so, cardholders can redeem miles for eligible restaurant delivery, takeout, and streaming service purchases through June 30, as well as for purchases on Amazon.com, when using Paypal, or for gift cards from merchants including Apple, Whole Foods, Walmart, and Home Depot.
Personal Finance Insider has named the Venture Rewards card the best travel rewards card for beginners for the following reasons:
- Simplicity: It offers 2 miles per dollar spent on all purchases. There’s no juggling spending categories to maximize points or transferring points to partners for more value.
- Price: Its annual $95 fee is worth noting, but is considered a modest fee for a solid travel rewards card.
- Accessibility: Capital One has no minimum redemption threshold, and lets you pool unlimited miles with other members at no cost.
What do you get with the Venture Rewards card?
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card comes with great benefits, some of which are usually reserved for more premium travel rewards cards. These perks include:
- Up to a $100 credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry (which actually includes PreCheck, so you’ll want to go for that one). If you already have a membership, you can use this benefit to pay for someone else’s application fee.
- Access to some exclusive events, VIP packages, and presales for concerts, music festivals, sporting events, and other ticketed events.
- No foreign transaction fees. Those are often around 3% for lower-tier cards that don’t include this benefit.
- Travel insurance benefits including rental car insurance, travel accident insurance, and a 24-hour emergency assistance number.
- Automatic extended warranty for eligible purchases (although it does not offer purchase protection).
The benefits are not the very best you can find in the travel rewards card space (check out the Chase Sapphire Preferred for those), but at the $95 annual fee price point they are pretty good and cover the most common needs for frequent travelers.