Capital One Venture X Business Card Review [2024]: A Premium Travel Companion for Business Owners

Capital One Venture X Business Card basics

Who should get the Capital One Venture X Business Card?

The Capital One Venture X Business Card is ideally suited for business owners with travel expenses thanks to its elevated rewards rates on flights and hotels booked through Capital One Travel. However, it’s still a pretty good fit for businesses with a broad spectrum of expenses. This is because it always earns 2X on all other purchases, which is one of the highest base rates you’d find on a business card.

It's also worth noting that the card's $395 annual fee is largely offset when you use the $300 in annual travel credit and receive the 10,000 anniversary bonus miles, which are valued at $100 when redeemed via Capital One Travel. This effectively reduces the cost for most users, making it an attractive option even for businesses with moderate travel expenses.

Who Should Skip?

Despite its generous benefits, the Capital One Venture X Business Card isn't the best fit for every business. Companies with no or few travel needs may find it challenging to maximize the card's travel-centric rewards and perks. While the $395 annual fee is largely offset by the card’s perks, businesses that need to avoid fees altogether might prefer a $0-annual-fee option like the Ink Business Unlimited^® Credit Card.

If your business prioritizes luxury hotel perks or specific hotel brand benefits, you may find more value in a premium card with more extensive hotel partnerships like the The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

What should you know before applying?

The Capital One Venture X Business Card is a charge card, not a traditional credit card. This distinction has significant implications for how you'll manage your account:

• Pay-in-full requirement: Unlike credit cards that allow you to carry a balance from month to month, the Venture X Business requires you to pay your balance in full every month. This means you can't roll over purchases to the next billing cycle.
• No preset spending limit: The card comes with no preset spending limit, which adapts to your needs based on your spending behavior, payment history, and credit profile. This can be beneficial for businesses with fluctuating expenses.
• Late payment consequences: This card doesn’t have an APR rate. Instead, if you don't pay off the balance in full, you'll be charged a late fee of 2.99% on your outstanding statement balance. Your account will be considered past due until Capital One receives your payment in full.

Understanding these aspects of the Venture X Business is essential before applying. While it offers great rewards and benefits, the charge card structure demands a different approach to managing your business expenses compared to traditional credit cards.

Here's a closer look at this card's top benefits

Generous yet challenging welcome offer

The Capital One Venture X Business Card starts off strong with an impressive welcome offer. You can earn 150,000 miles after spending $30,000 in the first 3 months. This is a substantial bonus that could potentially cover several round-trip flights or a luxurious hotel stay.

However, it's worth noting that the spending requirement is one of the highest among business cards. So if you plan to reach it, you'll need to ensure your business can comfortably meet it without overextending.

Elevated rewards on travel

One of the standout features of this card is its generous rewards rate on travel bookings. You'll earn 10X miles on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One's travel portal and 5X miles on flights booked through Capital One's travel portal.

These rates are among the highest you'll find for travel purchases, providing significant rewards for businesses with frequent travel needs. However, even when you're not traveling, the Venture X Business doesn't disappoint. You'll earn 2X miles on all other purchases.

This is a strong base rate that ensures you're always earning valuable rewards, regardless of the nature of your business expenses. It's particularly beneficial for businesses with diverse spending patterns that might not fit neatly into typical bonus categories.

Annual travel credit and anniversary bonus miles

Receiving the $300 annual travel credit is a key perk that helps offset the card's annual fee. This credit can be applied to travel purchases made through Capital One Travel, effectively reducing your out-of-pocket travel costs.

Additionally, each year on your account anniversary, you'll receive 10,000 bonus miles. When redeemed through Capital One Travel, these miles are worth $100, further helping to offset the annual fee.

Comprehensive travel perks and protections

The Venture X Business truly shines when it comes to travel perks and protections. The unlimited complimentary access to more than 1,300 Priority Pass, Plaza Premium, and Capital One lounges provides a place to relax away from the crowds or grab a meal and a drink.

Top this up with up to $100 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years, and you'll have a comprehensively improved airport experience.

The card also offers a suite of travel protections, including trip cancellation and interruption insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, and MasterRental insurance¹. These protections can provide peace of mind and potential savings in case of travel disruptions.

Capital One Travel benefits

Booking through Capital One Travel comes with several great perks. When you use the portal, you'll get access to Capital One's price prediction and price watch features, which can help you find the best deals on flights.

You also access Capital One Travel’s price drop protection, which offers automatic refunds if the price of your flight drops after booking. Plus, Capital One will match any better price you find for the same flight within 24 hours after booking.

Additionally, you can add the option to cancel your flight for any reason or freeze its price and book it later. Personally, I find Capital One Travel to be one of the most feature-rich travel booking platforms out there, that’s why I use it extensively through my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

Minimal fees for maximum value

The Capital One Venture X Business Card provides businesses with a cost-effective approach to additional cards and international transactions. You can add employee cards to your account at no extra cost, allowing you to extend your earning potential across your entire team while maintaining control over business spending.

Moreover, the card charges no foreign transaction fees, which is a significant advantage for businesses with international transactions.

Drawbacks: Why you may want a different card

$395 annual fee

While the Venture X Business offers premium benefits, its $395 annual fee might be steep for some businesses, especially those with lower travel budgets.

If you're looking for a business travel card with a lower annual fee, consider the Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card. It has a more modest $95 annual fee while still offering solid travel rewards and perks.

Limited luxury hotel perks

While the Capital One Venture X Business Card provides good general travel benefits, it lacks some of the luxury hotel perks that other premium cards offer, such as automatic elite status with hotel chains or specific hotel credits.

For more extensive hotel benefits, the The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express might be a better fit. It offers Gold Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy and Gold status Hilton Honors, along with access to the Fine Hotels & Resorts program, which provides perks like room upgrades and property credits at luxury hotels.

High spend requirement for its welcome offer

The welcome offer for the Capital One Venture X Business Card is generous, but it comes with a high spending requirement that might be challenging for some businesses to meet without overextending their budgets.

If you're looking for a more attainable welcome bonus, the Ink Business Cash^® Credit Card enables you to earn $350 when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months and an additional $400 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening.

Earning and redeeming Capital One Venture X Business Card rewards

Best ways to earn

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. 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:

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.

I 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.

Before calculating the redemption value, let’s subtract the cash portion ($104.51) of the award flight from the total price of the cash flight ($811), which puts it at $706.49. Next, divide $706.49 by 7,500 miles, and that’s 0.09419, or a redemption value of about 9.4 cents per mile.

That’s a really high redemption value, much higher than the average of 1 cent per mile. Finding redemptions such as this can take some effort, but the effort can obviously pay off.

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

Alternatives that might be better for you

Despite its generous rewards and travel perks, the Capital One Venture X Business Card isn't ideal for every business. If you’d rather pay a lower annual fee, consider the Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card. If, on the other hand, you’d like to get more premium benefits for your business, consider the The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card

If you're looking for a business travel card with a lower annual fee, the Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card could be a great alternative. With a $95 annual fee, it's more budget-friendly than the Capital One Venture X Business Card, while still offering solid travel rewards.

You'll earn 3X points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year; and 1X points per $1 on all other purchases. This diverse range of bonus categories can be quite beneficial for businesses that align with these spending patterns. For instance, if you're investing heavily in online advertising or have substantial shipping costs, you could be earning more points on these expenses.

The Ink Business Preferred also offers a welcome offer that's typically easier to reach than the Venture X Business. That’s why I got Ink Business Preferred for my business but still hesitate to apply for the Venture X Business. However, you won't get premium travel perks like lounge access or annual travel credits with the Ink Business Preferred.

Learn more in our Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card review.

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

For businesses that want even more premium travel benefits and don't mind a higher annual fee, the The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express(See rates and fees) could be a better fit. Despite its hefty $695 annual fee, it offers a suite of luxury travel perks that can provide significant value for frequent business travelers.

You'll earn 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); and 1X points per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases.

But where the Amex Business Platinum shines is with its travel benefits. You'll get access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection, including the highly-regarded Centurion Lounges. You'll also receive Gold Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy and Gold status Hilton Honors, which can significantly enhance your hotel stays.

These perks, combined with airline fee credits and numerous travel protections, make it an excellent choice for businesses that prioritize luxury travel experiences.

Learn more in our The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express review.

Amazing Travel Benefits for Business Owners

Capital One Venture X Business Card

4.7

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score cards based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Capital One Venture X Business Card

4.7

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score cards based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Why We Like It

Earn 150,000 miles after spending $30,000 in the first 3 months

See how these cards compare:

Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

• Generous welcome offer
• High rewards rate on common business expenses
• Flexible Ultimate Rewards points
• No foreign transaction fees
• Cell phone, purchase, and travel protections

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

• Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 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