Capital One Venture X Business Review: Huge Perks, Great Value

Link: Apply now for the Capital One Venture X Business (Rates & Fees)

We’ve just seen the online launch of the Capital One Venture X Business, which is Capital One’s new premium business card. I’d argue that this is now one of the best business cards on the market. The card offers a great return on spending, valuable perks that justify the annual fee, a huge bonus, and more.

I wanted to write a detailed review of the card, since it’s a product that many consumers are still familiarizing themselves with. Let’s take a look at the welcome bonus, annual fee, rewards structure, perks, and more.

Capital One Venture X Business 150K miles welcome bonus

The Capital One Venture X Business is offering a massive welcome bonus, though the spending requirement is quite significant. Specifically, you can earn 150,000 Venture bonus miles when you spend $30,000 on the card within the first three months.

I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each, so to me, 150,000 Venture miles are worth $2,550. This is a huge bonus for any business that’s able to complete the spending requirement.

If you’re going to apply for this card, Capital One’s general application restrictions apply. Eligibility for this card is unrelated to having other products from Capital One.

Capital One Venture X Business $395 annual fee

The Capital One Venture X Business has a $395 annual fee. Note that this annual fee is for the primary card member, and then you can add authorized user cards at no extra cost, so that you can rack up rewards for your employees’ spending.

While that annual fee might sound significant, everyone should be able to get outsized value from that fee, and holding onto the card should end up costing you very little. I’ll talk about that in more detail below, but the card offers two annual benefits that more than offset the annual fee, in my opinion.

Capital One Venture X Business rewards structure & spending ability

The Capital One Venture X Business has a lucrative rewards structure, and offers 2-10x Venture miles per dollar spent. On top of that, the card has no preset spending limit, no foreign transaction fees, and is a World Elite Mastercard. Let’s go over the details of each of these points.

Venture X Business 5-10x miles with Capital One Travel

The Capital One Venture X Business offers bonus rewards for travel booked through the Capital One Travel portal. Specifically, you can earn 10x Venture miles on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel, and 5x Venture miles on flights booked via Capital One Travel.

Based on my valuation of 1.7 cents per Capital One mile, that’s like a 17% return on hotels and rental cars, and an 8.5% return on flights. Some people might find it to be worthwhile to book through Capital One Travel to earn those rewards, but there’s often an opportunity cost to using a portal.

Venture X Business 2x miles on all other purchases

One of the greatest things about the Capital One Venture X Business is that it offers a minimum of 2x Venture miles on all purchases. That makes this one of the best cards for everyday spending, as I value that at a 3.4% return on spending. I’d highly recommend using this card as your business card for everyday spending, since you won’t find a better return on any other business card.

While some other cards may have lucrative bonus categories, you can’t beat the ease and general value of earning 2x Venture miles on all purchases.

Venture X Business no preset spending limit

The Capital One Venture X Business has no preset spending limit. This means that the card adapts to your spending needs over time based on spending behavior, payment history, credit profile, and other factors.

While this doesn’t mean that you can necessarily make a purchase of any amount on the card, this is a useful feature for businesses that frequently make large purchases that might not be covered by a traditional credit line.

Venture X Business no foreign transaction fees

The Capital One Venture X Business has no foreign transaction fees, making it a great card for purchases abroad. Not only can you avoid foreign transaction fees (which can be around 3% on some other cards), but you can earn rewards abroad as well.

Venture X Business is a World Elite Mastercard

The Capital One Venture X Business is a World Elite Mastercard. Mastercard has excellent global acceptance, and you can also expect the card to offer the typical purchase protection benefits that come with World Elite Mastercard.

Capital One Venture X Business perks & rewards

The Capital One Venture X Business really shines when it comes to the perks offered by the card. This includes everything from a $300 annual Capital One Travel credit, to 10,000 Venture anniversary bonus miles, to lounge access, and more. Let’s go over the details of each of these.

Venture X Business $300 annual Capital One Travel credit

The Capital One Venture X Business offers a $300 annual credit that can be used through Capital One Travel, starting your first year. You can apply this to a $300 purchase through Capital One Travel, and can use it toward a flight, hotel, or rental car. This is quite straightforward to use — my preferred method is to simply book a $300+ flight, and get $300 off that purchase amount.

I’d consider that credit to more or less be worth face value, so to me that is the equivalent of a roughly 75% rebate on the card’s $395 annual fee.

Venture X Business 10,000 Venture miles anniversary bonus

The Capital One Venture X Business offers 10,000 Venture miles on your account anniversary every year, starting on your first anniversary. At a minimum, you can redeem those 10,000 Venture miles for one cent each toward a travel purchase using the Purchase Eraser feature, so that’s worth a minimum of $100. However, if you’re a savvy points redeemer, you can get even more value out of that perk.

Venture X Business Priority Pass membership

The Capital One Venture X Business offers the primary card member a Priority Pass membership (unlike on the personal version of the card, this isn’t available to authorized users). A Priority Pass membership offers access to 1,200+ lounges around the world.

With the Priority Pass membership issued through the card, you can bring two guests into lounges with you at no extra cost. Furthermore, the Priority Pass membership issued by this card does offer credits at Priority Pass restaurants (unlike on the personal version of the card, where you don’t get credits at Priority Pass restaurants).

Venture X Business Capital One Lounge access

The Capital One Venture X Business offers the primary card member access to Capital One Lounges (unlike on the personal version of the card, this isn’t available to authorized users). So far, Capital One has lounges in Dallas (DFW) and Washington (IAD), and these are excellent, much better than your typical Priority Pass lounge. They feature grab & go food, cold brew on tap, and delicious food and drinks to enjoy in the lounge.

Primary card members on the Capital One Venture X Business receive unlimited visits to Capital One Lounges, and can bring two guests with them. If you fly out of DFW or IAD with any frequency, there’s big value to having access to a Capital One Lounge, in my opinion.

Venture X Business Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit

The Capital One Venture X Business offers a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry fee credit once every four years. You just have to charge the application fee to your card, and it will automatically be reimbursed. Both of these programs offer a lot of value if you’re a frequent flyer. I recommend signing up for Global Entry, since that comes with TSA PreCheck, while the inverse isn’t true.

How to redeem Capital One Venture miles

As you can see above, the Capital One Venture X Business earns Venture miles, and you earn a minimum of 2x Venture miles per dollar spent on purchases. How can you actually redeem those miles, though? There are a couple of ways to most efficiently redeem Capital One miles:

• Venture miles can be redeemed for one cent each toward the cost of a travel purchase
• Venture miles can be transferred to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners, typically at a 1:1 ratio

Let’s briefly talk about both of those redemption methods.

Redeem Venture miles toward travel costs

One way to redeem Capital One Venture miles is at the rate of one cent per mile toward the cost of a travel purchase. This means you’re earning two cents per dollar spent toward travel, since the card offers unlimited 2x Venture miles.

If you want to redeem your Venture miles toward the cost of a travel purchase, the best way to do so is using the Purchase Eraser feature. With this, you can make an eligible travel purchase using your card, and then you can go online after the fact and use your Venture miles to pay for the purchase within 90 days of the date of purchase. Your credit will then be applied within two to three days.

Eligible travel purchases using your Venture miles include purchases made from airlines, hotels, rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents, and timeshares.

It’s so nice to have the flexibility to make your travel purchase however you’d like, and then have the purchase reimbursed after the fact. Alternatively, you can book through the Capital One Travel Portal, and pay for your purchase directly with miles.

I can’t emphasize enough how lucrative it is to at least get a return of two cents on the dollar on all your business spending. A vast majority of people using travel rewards cards for everyday spending aren’t getting that level of return.

Convert Venture miles into airline or hotel points

Personally my preferred way to redeem Venture miles is to transfer them to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners. Capital One has nearly 20 travel partners, ranging from Air Canada Aeroplan, to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, to British Airways Executive Club, to Emirates Skywards, to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.

If you put some effort into learning how to redeem miles & points, you can get way outsized value this way. Let me give one example. Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles is a Capital One Venture transfer partner, and I recently redeemed 45,000 miles for a one-way business class ticket on Turkish Airlines from Chicago to Istanbul to Frankfurt.

If paying cash, that ticket would cost have thousands of dollars. Meanwhile I booked it for just 45,000 Venture miles, the equivalent of $450 worth of travel. Not bad, eh?

Is the Capital One Venture X Business worth it?

The Capital One Venture X Business has a great value proposition, and I think this might now be one of the most well rounded business cards out there. A few key points:

• While the Venture X Business has a $395 annual fee, for mental accounting purposes, I consider the $300 Capital One Travel credit plus the 10,000 anniversary bonus mils to offset that on an ongoing basis
• The Venture X Business has an excellent return on spending, that’s better than most people will get on other cards; earning 2x Venture miles on everyday spending is awesome, and these rewards give you flexibility to redeem as cash toward a travel purchase, or to transfer to travel partners
• The Venture X Business has a huge welcome that’s very lucrative, and absolutely worth taking advantage of, if you’re able to
• The icing on the cake is the lounge access offered by the card, including a Priority Pass membership and Capital One Lounge access

With that out of the way, let me compare this card to a few others, just for additional context.

How does the personal Capital One Venture X compare?

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees) is the personal version of the Capital One Venture X Business, and it’s a card that has become incredibly popular with consumers. I think there’s something to be said for having both cards, but how do the two cards compare?

• What the cards have in common is that they have the same annual fees, same rewards structure, and they both offer a $300 annual travel credit, 10,000 anniversary bonus miles, a Priority Pass membership, and Capital One Lounge access
• The personal version of the card has the advantage of offering lounge access for authorized users, of offering Hertz President’s Circle status, and of offering cell phone protection
• The business version of the card has the advantage of offering a much bigger bonus (though also with a bigger spending requirement), of having no preset spending limit, and of offering Priority Pass restaurant credits

I’d say both cards are incredibly lucrative. The personal version of the card is perhaps more of a slam dunk in terms of value, and almost falls into the “too good to be true” category. Like I said, given that there’s almost no cost to holding onto these cards (due to the perks), I think there’s merit to having both cards.

How does the Chase Ink Preferred compare?

Historically I’ve considered the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) to be the all-around most lucrative business card. How do I think the two cards compare?

• While the Chase Ink Preferred has a lower annual fee, it doesn’t have the same ongoing perks that help offset the annual fee, so I’d argue that the Capital One Venture X Business will end up costing savvy consumers less on an ongoing basis
• The Ink Preferred is lucrative for the bonus categories that it offers, as you can earn up to 3x points in select categories, but the card offers 1x points in non-bonused categories; whether the 3x points in select categories on the Ink Preferred or 2x miles on all purchases on the Venture X Business is better, depends entirely on your spending patterns
• The Ink Preferred does offer some lucrative additional perks, like cell phone protection and rental car coverage
• The Venture X Business has the advantage of offering airport lounge access, which the Ink Preferred doesn’t offer

I’d argue that at this point the Capital One Venture X Business is a more lucrative and well-rounded business card for everyday spending, especially for those who don’t want to spend a lot of their free time maximizing rewards.

How does the Capital One Spark Miles Business compare?

Previously Capital One’s most lucrative business card for earning miles was the Capital One Spark Miles for Business (review) (Rates & Fees), so how does the card compare to the Capital One Venture X Business?

• Both cards earn 2x Capital One miles on everyday spending (while miles are branded differently — Spark vs. Venture — they’re the same for all practical purposes)
• The Spark Miles Business Card has a $95 annual fee (waived the first year), while the Venture X Business has a $395 annual fee
• I’d say there’s big incremental value to the Venture X Business, including no preset spending limit, a $300 annual Capital One Travel credit, 10,000 Venture anniversary bonus miles, a Priority Pass membership, and unlimited access to Capital One Lounges

Between the two cards, I think the Venture X Business is the better value at this point.

Bottom line

The Capital One Venture X Business is Capital One’s new premium business card, and it offers an excellent value proposition.

While the card has a $395 annual fee, that’s easy to justify thanks to the $300 annual Capital One Travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles. On top of that, the card offers a Priority Pass membership, Capital One Lounge access, and a great return on spending, all with no preset spending limit.

The icing on the cake for this card is the huge bonus of 150K Venture miles upon completing minimum spending. If you’re eligible for this card, I’d highly recommend applying. I know I plan on picking it up…

If you want to learn more about the Venture X Business or want to apply, follow this link.