Capital One Venture Business Review

Pros

• Simple, flat-rate rewards program
• Good rewards rate
• Early spend bonus
• Benefits including rental collision insurance & roadside assistance

Cons

• High APR
• Annual fee

What Is Capital One Venture Business?

Capital One Venture Business (previously known as Capital One Spark Miles) is a solid business credit card for travel rewards. With a flat rate of 2x for every dollar spent (plus 5x miles on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One Business Travel), this card offers a simple and appealing rewards system.

Plus, unlike some other travel programs, your miles can be used for most travel arrangements — not just flights on your airline of choice or nights in specific hotels.

Capital One Venture Business: Quick Facts

Rewards & Perks

With the Capital One Venture Business card, you’ll get a solid rewards rate when making purchases. What’s more, heavy spenders will like this card’s valuable early spend bonus.

Early Spend Bonus

By holding a Venture Business card, you’ll be eligible to receive 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $10,000 in the first 3 months.

Once you qualify for the early spend bonus, you’ll get your bonus miles within two billing cycles. Unsurprisingly, current or previous Venture Business cardholders aren’t eligible for this offer.

Unlimited 2x On All Purchases

The base rewards scheme with Venture Business is simple: You’ll collect 2x for every dollar you spend on purchases.

Because there are no category restrictions, this is a very solid rate that matches up well against most other cards on the market.

More Miles On Hotels, Vacation Rentals, & Rental Cars

Venture Business earns 5x miles on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One Business Travel. Just remember that booking hotels and rental cars through other services besides Capital One Business Travel won’t trigger this rate.

Redeeming Rewards

The easiest and most logical redemption method is to redeem your miles for travel. When booking travel through Capital One, you can use your miles on airfare, hotels, vacation packages, car rentals, and more. There are no blackout dates, seat restrictions, or required minimum redemption amounts.

You can also redeem miles for cash as a check or account credit, gift cards from an array of merchants, and more. Keep in mind that if you choose one of these redemption options, your cash value may vary from the standard one-cent-per-mile rate.

For those who do want to redeem for travel but can’t find a suitable option through Capital One Business Travel, you can transfer your miles to select air travel loyalty programs. At the time of writing, you can transfer miles to over 15 partners, including British Airways, Emirates Skywards, Air Canada, and Air France KLM.

Just like every other Capital One business credit card, the miles you earn with the Venture Business card won’t expire as long as your account is active. In some cases, you might be able to transfer miles between Capital One accounts, but whenever your account is closed, any unredeemed miles will be lost.

Rates & Fees

With the Venture Business card, you’ll have to pay an annual fee after your first year. The card’s APR is on the high side as well, and there is no intro 0% APR period.

A High APR

With an APR of 24.49% (variable), you’ll be looking at an interest rate that’s higher than that of many other business credit cards. Of course, this APR won’t come into play as long as you pay off your balance every month.

Annual Fee

This card has an annual fee of $95. If you make all your purchases at the card’s standard 2x rate and redeem miles for the standard one cent per mile, you’ll need to spend at least $4,750 on purchases annually to recoup the annual fee’s cost ($95 / 0.02 = $4,750).

No Foreign Transaction Fees

As with the rest of Capital One’s business credit card lineup, Venture Business carries no foreign transaction fees. That is especially crucial for a travel card — those who venture abroad frequently won’t have to worry about paying more than they have to when making purchases outside the country.

Other Fees To Keep In Mind

Besides an annual fee, this card comes with a couple of additional fees to watch out for. These extra costs include cash advance fees ($5 or 5% of the cash advance, whichever is higher) and late payment fees (up to $39).

Features

You’ll receive a nice array of business features and benefits with this card.

Eligibility Requirements

The Capital One Venture Business card is marketed to applicants 18 years or older with excellent credit. Per the Capital One website, excellent credit users should have:

• Never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan
• Been no more than 60 days late for a payment in the past year on credit cards, medical bills, or loan repayments
• A loan or credit card for at least three years with a credit limit of $5,000 or higher

For those curious, an excellent credit score generally amounts to around 740 or above. Keep in mind this number is just a guideline — there is no officially published credit score for this card.

Customer Service

Capital One offers a full range of customer support options to all Venture Business cardholders.

Capital One offers 24/7 direct customer support and an extensive FAQ if you don’t need to speak with someone.

Capital One Venture Business Reviews

Capital One Venture Business earns strong marks from cardholders on review sites. The card earns an average user score of 3.7/5 at WalletHub (220+ reviews) and 4.2/5 at Credit Karma (just 5 reviews). These scores don’t look spectacular, but they are higher than what the average business credit card gets with these websites.

Final Verdict: Is Capital One Venture Business Right For You?

Capital One Venture Business is a strong business credit card for travel rewards. The consistent earning rate will see you earning rewards without having to keep track of revolving spending categories or anything of the sort.

The card’s relatively high APR, annual fee, and lack of an intro 0% APR period hold back the card’s score a bit, but for the right business owner, Venture Business offers abundant value.

If your credit score isn’t quite in the range Capital One likes to see for this card but your business’s metrics are strong, you may want to consider one of the top corporate credit cards instead.

You might want to apply if:

• You’ll spend enough to offset the annual fee
• You or your employees do a lot of traveling, and you want a card with flexible travel rewards
• You want a simple way to earn travel rewards for your business

You might want to look for a different card if:

• You won’t spend enough to offset the annual fee
• You want a cash-back card instead of a miles-based travel card