- The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card earns 2 miles per dollar on every purchase with no limits.
- There's an annual fee of $95 that's waived the first year, but your miles could be worth a lot more than if you use the card regularly and enjoy travel.
- If you spend $4,750 on the card in a year, you'll break even on the annual fee.
- New customers start with 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months.
- See Business Insider's list of the best travel rewards credit cards »
There's little more exciting than jetting off into the sunset. One way to make it even more enjoyable is booking that flight (or other travel) with miles rather than cash. The Venture card from Capital One is the easiest way to earn and redeem miles for travel.
Today we are going to take a look at exactly what you need to spend with the Venture card every year to break even on the $95 annual fee. By the end, you'll know if that fee is worth it for you or if you would be better off with a no-annual-fee rewards card instead.
Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back.
Earning Capital One Venture miles
The Venture card gives you a flat 2 miles per dollar on every purchase. There's no need to worry about which card to use where, bonus categories, or rotating bonuses that change every three months. You'll get the 2x rate on every purchase with no limits when using this card.
If you're a new cardholder, you can pick up an additional 50,000 bonus miles after making $3,000 in purchases in the first three months after opening your account. That bonus alone is worth at least $500 toward travel. That's five years of annual fees covered from the start - or six if you include the waived fee for the first year.
Read more: The best credit card sign-up bonuses available now
The value of a Capital One Venture mile
Capital One miles are most easily redeemed using the somewhat unique Purchase Eraser feature. With the Purchase Eraser, when you book flights, hotels, and other eligible travel with your Venture card, you can redeem miles to reimburse yourself for the cost. You get 1 cent per mile with the Purchase Eraser, and when booking travel through the Capital One Venture website.
Capital One also partners with a group of airlines that you can transfer miles to, sometimes for an even bigger value than 1 cent per mile. The Points Guy values Capital One miles at 1.4 cents apiece when factoring in the ability to transfer to partners.
Moving miles to partners takes a bit more work and research than simply redeeming through the Capital One website or app. The value of your miles will vary depending on how you use them, but as a guideline you should never redeem for less than 1 cent apiece, since that's how much they're worth with the Purchase Eraser or toward travel booked through Capital One.
What do you need to spend to break even with the Venture card's annual fee?
So, how much do you have to spend per year to break even on the Venture card's $95 annual fee? Assuming the rate of 1 cent per mile, you would have to earn 9,500 Miles in a year to break even. That's just $4,750 in annual purchases, or an average of $396 per month.]
If you take advantage of Capital One's airline transfer partners and get that 1.4-cent value per mile, your spending requirement to break even is even lower. You would earn an equivalent of 2.8 cents back per dollar at that rate and need to spend just $2,293 per year - that's $283 per month - to break even.
Just using the card for groceries and utilities should cover the annual fee and a lot more for most households. Any miles you earn above the break-even point are profit back in your account that you can use toward travel.
Is this the right card for you?
There are a ton of excellent travel rewards cards to chose from, but the Venture card is one of the easiest options for earning and redeeming. And with a fairly low breakeven point on the annual fee, it's easy to see how you could end the year with a few extra award flights worth a lot more than the $95 charged by the card.
If you want a similar card with no annual fee, the lower-tier Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card is a decent choice too. But if you use the card regularly and love to travel, you won't go wrong with the Venture card.
Click here to learn more about the Capital One Venture card »
- More credit card coverage
- What's the best airline credit card?
- The best cash-back credit cards
- Southwest credit card review
- Best rewards credit cards
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.