Capital One Venture X Business Card Review [2024]: Great Earning Potential and Premium Travel Benefits

CREDIT CARDS - BUSINESS CREDIT CARDS
The Capital One Venture X Business Card is the go-to option for premium travel cards in Capital One’s credit card lineup and a contender for one of the best travel cards for business owners.
Updated March 21, 2024
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We like how the Capital One Venture X Business Card makes sense for earning valuable rewards on all types of business expenses while also providing premium travel benefits.

It has a $395 annual fee, but two card benefits can quickly help offset this cost: a $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary miles. In addition, you can also take advantage of the up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, airport lounge access, and no foreign transaction fees.

Let’s explore our Capital One Venture X Business Card review to see whether this card makes sense for you.

Amazing Travel Benefits for Business Owners

Capital One Venture X Business Card
4.7

Capital One Venture X Business Card

Current Offer

Earn 150,000 miles after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months (plus, earn an additional 150,000 miles after spending $100,000 in the first 6 months)

Annual Fee

$395

Rewards Rate

10X miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One's travel portal, 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One's travel portal, and 2X miles on all other purchases

Benefits and Drawbacks
Card Details

In this Capital One Venture X Business Card review

Key takeaways

  • We think the Capital One Venture X Business Card makes sense if you want to take advantage of premium travel benefits and want your business spending to earn straightforward travel rewards. This card doesn’t make sense if you want a cash back or no-annual-fee business card.
  • You have to pay a $395 annual fee.
  • A $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary miles could almost immediately help offset the $395 annual fee.
  • You don’t have to pay foreign transaction fees, can transfer your miles to transfer partners, and receive airport lounge access to Priority Pass and Capital One Lounges.

Who should get the Capital One Venture X Business Card?

If you want a premium business travel card with a simple earning rate for different types of business purchases, this is the card for you.

With the Capital One Venture X Business Card, you can earn 10X miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One's travel portal, 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One's travel portal, and 2X miles on all other purchases.

Our favorite part about this earning rate is that you can earn 2X miles on all other purchases other than the bonus categories, which makes it easy to earn an elevated rate on all types of business expenses. Whether it’s gas, utilities, supplies, or any other eligible business purchases, you can earn the same 2X rate.

For frequent travelers, it’s hard to dismiss the value you can get from unlimited airport lounge access to Priority Pass and Capital One Lounges, which includes free access for up to two guests. You also receive no foreign transaction fees, a $300 annual travel credit, 10,000 anniversary miles, and up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.

Even with the $395 annual fee, that’s a lot of potential value you can take advantage of.

Capital One Venture X Business Card basics

Card type Travel/Business
Credit card issuer Capital One
Annual fee $395
Intro bonus Earn 150,000 miles after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months (plus, earn an additional 150,000 miles after spending $100,000 in the first 6 months)
Reward rate 10X miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One's travel portal, 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One's travel portal, and 2X miles on all other purchases
Recommended credit score Excellent

Why we like Capital One Venture X Business Card: benefits and perks

  • Generous welcome offer: Earn 150,000 miles after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months (plus, earn an additional 150,000 miles after spending $100,000 in the first 6 months).
  • Elevated earning potential: Earn 10X miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One's travel portal, 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One's travel portal, and 2X miles on all other purchases.
  • Annual travel credit: Receive a $300 annual travel credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel.
  • Anniversary bonus: Receive 10,000 bonus miles each anniversary year.
  • Airport lounge access: Receive complimentary access to Priority Pass and Capital One Lounges for you and up to two guests.
  • Airport security programs: Receive up to $100 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years.
  • Travel partners: Transfer your miles to one of more than a dozen Capital One transfer partners, including Air Canada, British Airways, and Virgin Red.

What we don’t like about this card: drawbacks

  • Annual fee: You have to pay a $395 annual fee, which might not make sense if you can’t get enough value from the card’s perks and benefits.
  • Charge card: The Venture X Business Card is a charge card, which means you can’t carry a balance and have to pay off your card in full every month or risk paying late fees. This could be a drawback if you’re used to traditional credit cards where you can carry a balance.
  • Limited travel credit: You can only use the $300 travel credit benefit for bookings through Capital One Travel, which is less flexible than being able to book with a hotel, airline, or car rental agency directly. Some other premium travel cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, provide more flexible travel credits.

Earning and redeeming Capital One Venture X Business Card rewards

Best ways to earn

Category Rewards rate
Hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One's travel portal 10X
Flights booked through Capital One's travel portal 5X
All other purchases 2X

The Capital One Venture X Business Card makes it easy to earn elevated rewards on all your eligible purchases by providing a few bonus categories and then a base earning rate of 2X miles on all other purchases. If you compare credit cards, there aren’t many rewards cards that can beat this type of base earning potential.

The bonus categories might not be as useful because you have to use the Capital One Travel booking platform, which limits your booking flexibility. There isn’t anything necessarily bad about Capital One Travel, but you might find better travel deals by booking directly with airlines, hotels, or car rental companies.

Maximizing your redemptions

You can typically get the most bang for your buck by using your Venture miles on travel-related redemptions. Specifically, using your miles for transfers to travel partners could provide the best redemption value for the Capital One Venture X Business Card.

But covering recent travel purchases and booking travel through Capital One Travel can also provide better value compared with other options.

A value of 1 cent per mile is considered average for many types of credit card rewards. With that in mind, consider a few options for using your miles and how much value you might be able to glean:

Redemption Cost in miles Redemption value
$50 cash back (statement credit) 10,000 miles 0.5 cents per mile
$100 Amazon gift card 12,500 miles 0.8 cents per mile
Cover a $100 recent travel purchase 10,000 miles 1 cent per mile
$100 flight through Capital One Travel 10,000 miles 1 cent per mile

Tip
You can calculate your redemption value by taking the cash value of a redemption and dividing it by how much the redemption would cost in points or miles. For example, a $100 flight that costs 10,000 miles would be $100 / 10,000 = 0.01 or a value of 1 cent per mile.

Travel-related redemptions through Capital One clearly provide more value than some other options, but you could possibly do even better with a transfer to a travel partner.

Flying Blue, the rewards program for KLM and Air France, is a Capital One transfer partner and regularly provides promotional deals for flights to Europe from North America. For example, a recent deal offered one-way flights from Montreal to Europe on KLM for as few as 7,500 miles.

screenshot of Capital One travel portal

We searched for flights from Montreal to Amsterdam and found an excellent option for 7,500 miles + $104.51. The cash price for this flight was $811.

screenshot of Capital One travel portal

screenshot of Capital One travel portal

Before we start our redemption value calculation, let’s subtract the cash portion ($104.51) of the award flight from the total price of the cash flight ($811), which leaves us at $706.49. Now we can divide $706.49 by 7,500 miles and we get 0.09419, or a redemption value of about 9.4 cents per mile.

That’s some amazing redemption value, and much higher than the average of 1 cent per mile. Keep in mind that it can take some effort to find redemptions such as this, but the effort can obviously pay off.

Also, a good rule of thumb for using travel partners is to not transfer anything until you’re sure you have something to book. This is because, unfortunately, you can’t transfer miles back to your Capital One account after they’ve been moved to a travel partner.

FAQ

Is the Capital One Venture X Business Card hard to get?

It could be hard to get approved because you typically need an excellent credit score to qualify for the Capital One Venture X Business Card. That's at least an 800 on the FICO scoring model.

But keep in mind that credit scores are guidelines and not a guarantee of approval. Credit card issuers often check multiple creditworthiness factors to determine your eligibility. Those factors could include your total annual income, your business revenue, your number of recent credit inquiries, your existing debt, and more.

What is the highest credit limit for the Capital One Venture X Business Card?

The Capital One Venture X Business Card doesn’t have a preset credit limit because it’s a charge card. This means your spending power is determined by Capital One and could depend on multiple factors, including your creditworthiness, payment history, and spending history. You have to pay off charge cards in full each month or potentially pay a late fee.

How much income do you need to qualify for the Capital One Venture X Business Card?

Capital One doesn’t publish specific requirements to qualify for its credit cards, and there’s typically no official income requirement to qualify for most credit cards. But considering how much you have to spend to earn the welcome offer on the Capital One Venture X Business Card, it makes sense to have a higher income or a decent amount of business spending to qualify.

For the Venture X Business Card, you can earn 150,000 miles after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months (plus, earn an additional 150,000 miles after spending $100,000 in the first 6 months).

Other cards to consider

If the Capital One Venture X Business Card doesn’t seem like the right fit for you, consider the benefits and earning potential of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and Capital One Spark Miles for Business.

The Amex Business Platinum has a $695 annual fee but provides loads of valuable perks and credits that could help offset the annual cost. This includes more than $1,000 in business and travel credits, airport lounge access, and elite status with multiple hotel chains and car rental companies. (Select benefits require enrollment.)

Learn more in our American Express Business Platinum review.

The Capital One Spark Miles has a much lower $95 (waived first year) annual fee, while still providing an excellent earning rate of 5X miles on rental cars and hotels booked through Capital One Travel, and 2X miles on every purchase, every day. You don’t get unlimited airport lounge access, but you can still transfer miles to Capital One travel partners and receive up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.

Learn more in our Capital One Spark Miles for Business review.

Amazing Travel Benefits for Business Owners

Capital One Venture X Business Card
4.7

Capital One Venture X Business Card

Why We Like It

Earn 150,000 miles after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months (plus, earn an additional 150,000 miles after spending $100,000 in the first 6 months)

See how these cards compare:

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
  • Earn 120,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases in the first 3 months
  • 5X points on flights and prepaid hotels on Amextravel.com
  • 1.5X points on eligible purchases at U.S. suppliers of construction materials and hardware, U.S. retailers of electronic goods, U.S. providers of shipping, software and cloud systems, and eligible purchases of $5,000 or more (up to $2 million per year, then 1X)
  • Up to $200 statement credit per year for airline incidental fees
  • $695 annual fee
  • See rates and fees | Terms Apply
Capital One Spark Miles for Business
Capital One Spark Miles for Business
  • Earn 50,000 miles after spending $4,500 in the first 3 months
  • Unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
  • Free employee cards
  • No foreign transaction fees

Bottom line

We think the Capital One Venture X Business Card is an excellent option for small business owners who can meet the minimum spend requirements for the welcome offer and want premium travel benefits.

The $395 annual fee can seem high at first glance, but the card’s benefits, including the $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary miles, almost immediately offset the annual cost. And that’s without including how much value you can get from earning and redeeming rewards, airport lounge access, or other benefits.

To compare the Venture X Business Card against other rewards cards, check out our list of the best business credit cards.

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