Capital One Venture X Business: Review
The Capital One Venture X Business is a compelling choice due to exceptional rewards and abundant travel perks but before deciding if this is the best credit card for you, let’s dig a little deeper.
Is the Capital One Venture X Business worth it?
Yes, the Capital One Venture X Business card is easily worth it for the right business owner. With its simple earning structure and impressive perks, the Capital One Venture X Business card can produce generous rewards for business owners who spend a lot each month.
Whether this Capital One business card ends up being the right one for you will largely depend on how strongly your travel habits and business expenses factor into your lifestyle. For instance, the Venture X Business offers nearly unmatched earnings and bonuses for cardholders with large monthly business expenses and regular travel habits.
Ultimately, you’ll need to look at your expenditures to see if your business spending is at the level where the card’s high fee and strict balance-repayment requirements make it the right choice for optimizing your spending power.
Capital One Venture X Business: Highlights
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Annual fee: There’s an annual fee of $395.
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Reward rate: 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel and 2x miles on all other purchases.
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Welcome offer: Earn 150,000 bonus miles after spending $30,000 in the first three months of card ownership.
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Key perks: Impressive rewards for travel purchases, 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary and no foreign transaction fees.
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Drawbacks: Although the welcome offer is generous, it does have a high spending threshold. You will also need to pay the full balance of this card every month.
Who is Capital One Venture X Business best for?
The Capital One Venture X Business is ideal for frequent travelers who can take advantage of its travel perks and rewards rates. It’s best suited for cardholders who already have significant monthly expenses, making it easier for them to qualify for the welcome offer and confidently pay off the card balance each month.
Capital One Venture X Business: Rewards
There’s no doubt that the card’s strength is its delivery of elite rewards. While your individual circumstances will determine if you can reach thresholds to meet and maximize reward potential, it’s worth knowing what’s possible.
Earning rewards
This category is where the value of the Capital One Venture X Business card really begins to shine.
Cardholders will receive the following:
- Unlimited 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
- Unlimited 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel.
- Unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases.
Redeeming rewards
The most valuable redemption option with this rewards card is to transfer miles to any of Capital One’s many hotel and airline partners.
Let’s take a look at the airline partners and transfer ratios:
- Aeromexico Rewards: 1:1
- Air Canada Aeroplan: 1:1
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue: 1:1
- Accor Live Limitless: 2:1
- Avianca LifeMiles: 1:1
- British Airways Executive Club: 1:1
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: 1:1
- Choice Privileges (United States customers only): 1:1
- Emirates Skywards: 1:1
- Etihad Airways Guest: 1:1
- EVA Airways Infinity MileageLands: 4:3
- Finnair Plus: 1:1
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: 1:1
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer: 1:1
- TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go: 1:1
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles: 1:1
- Virgin Red: 1:1
- Wyndham Rewards: 1:1
Hotel partners:
- Wyndham Rewards 1:1
- Accord Live Limitless 2:1
- Choice Privileges 1:1
In addition to travel bookings, Capital One Venture X Business also lets you redeem your miles using:
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Travel purchases: Miles can be used to cover any travel purchase within 90 days of the purchase at a redemption value of 1 cent per mile.
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Statement credits: When redeemed as a statement credit, each mile’s value is 1 cent.
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Cash back: Each mile’s value is 0.5 cents when redeemed for cash back.
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Gift cards: When redeemed for gift cards with more than 90 participating vendors, each mile’s value is between 0.8 and 1 cent. Account holders must have a minimum balance of 2,500 miles to choose a gift card.
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Shopping: Miles can be used to make purchases via Amazon at a rate of 125 miles per $1. When making purchases through PayPal, the redemption rate is 0.8 cents per mile.
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Entertainment and perks: Eligible cardholders can apply rewards to VIP experiences and perks at more than 500,000 events at a redemption rate of 0.8 cents per mile.
▶︎ Learn more: Capital One rewards program guide
Welcome offer
The Capital One Venture X Business offers 150,000 bonus miles for new cardholders after spending $30,000 in the first three months of card ownership. This welcome bonus is probably the card’s most valuable perk and equals around $1,500 in travel.
Capital One Venture X Business: Benefits
Whether you’re planning travel experiences or simply trying to streamline how you make payments for your business, the Capital One Venture Business card offers a wide range of perks.
Travel benefits
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$300 annual credit. Every year, you’ll get a $300 travel credit to use for bookings through Capital One Travel.
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10,000 anniversary miles bonus. Cardholders will receive 10,000 anniversary bonus miles each year starting on their first anniversary.
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Up to $100 credit. Every 4 to 4.5 years, cardholders get up to $100 to use toward the application fee of Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.
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Complimentary Priority Pass access. With Priority Pass, cardmembers and guests can access more than 1,300 participating VIP lounges in over 148 countries.
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Price-match guarantee. Use this for flights, hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel when a cheaper price for the same travel is found within 24 hours.
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Price-drop protection. This delivers a travel credit of up to $50 when Capital One’s price prediction tool recommends booking a flight because the price is likely to increase.
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Access to Capital One’s Premier Collection. Get access to hotels featuring boutique experiences that can include free Wi-Fi, daily breakfast, room upgrades, early check-in services and bonus miles on paid reservations.
Business benefits
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Automatic payments. Set up recurring payouts to vendors.
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Dedicated support. Get the help you need from business representatives at Capital One.
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Free employee cards. Track spending from authorized users while watching all earnings and rewards pile up.
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Customized spending limits. Apply spending limits on employee cards.
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Assign an account manager. Assign a manager to make purchases, manage payments, review transactions and resolve any issues that pop up with the card.
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Integrate purchase records. Integrate seamlessly into accounts payable by allowing you to quickly and securely download them into Quicken®, QuickBooks® and Excel®.
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Itemized year-end summary. An itemized summary can help with budgeting and tax purposes.
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Choose monthly due dates. Cardholders choose their own monthly due dates to control when they pay the balance.
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Zero liability protection. Protects you with emergency replacement and a cash advance if a card is lost or stolen.
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Virtual card numbers. Pay online without exposing your number to merchants.
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Card lock. Freeze your credit card quickly via the Capital One Mobile app if you suspect it’s been lost or stolen.
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Fraud alerts. If suspicious activity is detected, a fraud alert will be sent to your mobile number and email address.
Capital One Venture X Business: The fine print
It’s impossible to talk about the Capital One Venture X Business card without mentioning the front-loaded cost of becoming a cardholder. Let’s take a look at some of the fees to keep an eye on.
Fees
- Annual fee: $395
- Foreign transaction fee: None
- Late payment fee: 2.99% of the balance
- Balance transfer fee: $0
- Cash advance fee: 5%
Interest rates
- Regular APR: Variable 19.99%-29.99%
- Purchase Intro APR: 0% for 15 months
- Balance Transfer Intro APR: 4%
Credit limit
The Capital One Venture X Business doesn’t have a preset spending limit. Instead, each cardholder is given a limit calculated based on their credit profile. Positive card activity such as making multiple payments within a billing cycle can help increase your credit limit.
Capital One Venture X Business: Drawbacks
The Capital One Venture X Business card has some impressive features but it’s important to consider its drawbacks to ensure this is the right card for you.
High spending threshold to qualify for the welcome bonus
As previously mentioned, the Venture X Business welcome offer is one of its more enticing perks. However, you will need to spend $30,000 to earn the 150,000 bonus miles. Achieving this may be feasible if your business already spends this much on average, but other businesses may find it difficult to reach this threshold.
High annual fee
The Capital One Venture X Business card has an annual fee of $395. With this yearly cost, you’ll need to consider whether the benefits and rewards of the card will offset this charge. Otherwise, you may be better off opting for a no-annual-fee card.
Pay-in-full requirements make the full balance due every month
Although there is no preset spending limit, it’s important to pay the card’s balance in full every month to avoid incurring late payment fees. Keep in mind that these fees amount to 2.99% of the balance and can rack up quickly.
How the Capital One Venture X Business compares
With hefty travel perks and robust redemption options set against a backdrop of business-streamlining features, this business travel card stands in a class of its own in many ways. However, with the annual fee and welcome bonus requirements, it’s important to see how it compares to other popular cards.
Capital One Venture X Business vs. Capital One Spark Miles for Business
The Capital One Spark Miles for Business offers a welcome bonus of 50,000 miles when you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first three months. This is significantly more attainable compared to Venture X’s 150,000 miles for spending $30,000 in the same time frame.
However, Venture X beats Spark Miles when it comes to earnings. You’re looking at 10x miles on rental cars and hotels, 5x miles on flights, 2x miles on all other purchases and 10,000 anniversary miles against Spark Miles’s 5x miles on rental cars and 2x miles on all other purchases.
There’s also the matter of the annual fee, Capital One Spark Miles for Business costs just $95 per year instead of Venture X’s $395. It also offers a $0 introductory price for the first year which is lacking with the Venture X Business card.
▶︎ Read more: Capital One Spark Miles for Business review
Capital One Venture X Business vs. Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card
At $650, the annual fee for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card is nearly double Venture X’s fee (see rates and fees). While this card can benefit someone who frequently flies with Delta, other cardholders may be unimpressed with the 1x miles on all other purchases.
Frequent travelers will enjoy the Delta card’s Centurion® Lounge and Delta Sky Club® access. There’s also a free Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® credit that matches Venture X’s compatible perk. The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business card does offer other unique perks such as up to a $240 dining credit through Resy.
On the business side, the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business mirrors many of the perks of Venture X by offering a feature to assign a dedicated account manager, synching with QuickBooks®, account alerts and end-of-year summary of charges.
▶︎ Read more: Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business review
Should you get the Capital One Venture X Business?
The Capital One Venture X Business is a great choice for business owners who travel frequently and want to start earning rewards for their heavy business spending. With its hard-to-beat perks and straightforward rewards structure, this business card is unmatched in many areas.
Ultimately, the $395 annual fee will be the deciding factor in whether you should get this card or not. You will need to spend enough each month for the rewards to offset the cost of the annual fee and to qualify for that substantial welcome bonus.
