The Venture X Card: A Deep Dive into Perks and Benefits

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When it comes to overall comprehensive benefits compared to value, I put this card at the top of my list.

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Today I'm going to walk you through the perks of this card, but also a lot of overlooked benefits that can help put money back into your pocket, not just for travel, but also for things you spend on every day.

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Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

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I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family, but I believe travel isn't just for the rich.

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That's why, on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that my family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire vacations every year.

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I'm generally an optimist, but I'm somewhat of a pessimist about the Capital One VentureX Rewards credit card.

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That's because, to be honest, I think if you were to measure value against the annual fee, the value actually far outpaces the annual fee, and to me that means we'll eventually see a chipping away of benefits or a higher annual fee.

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But in the meantime, we're living in the sweet spot of this card and today I'm excited to share with you all the things that are going to help you really get the most value from this card.

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This card is the second one I recommend getting in my three-year plan.

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You could get it first too.

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The one-two order isn't crucial, but it is one that I absolutely recommend getting early on.

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We're going to go into all the value of this card today, but first let's talk about some application tips.

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Besides the many perks and protections it has, I also recommend getting it early on because Capital One is a bit finicky about approvals.

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There is no guaranteed set of rules we've been able to unlock about how to know if you'll get approved.

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Having a high credit score, for instance, does not make you a shoo-in.

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What does seem to help is having very few or no new credit inquiries in the past six months.

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It seems like the previous six months makes the most difference, but not necessarily the full past 24 months and card openings, like it is with Chase.

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When I got approved for this card, it was back in 2021 when it was released and I was actually 824, but still got approved.

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The other factor is that Capital One doesn't really seem to offer reconsideration if you get declined Other banks you can often call in and say, hey, I was declined, but here's why I'm interested in this card.

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Can you reconsider this denial?

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Capital One doesn't really do that.

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So to give yourself the best chance to get this card, it helps to apply early on when you're getting into travel points, so you don't have a bunch of inquiries on your credit report to get this card.

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It helps to apply early on when you're getting into travel points, so you don't have a bunch of inquiries on your credit report.

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Capital One also has an odd question that asks if you plan to carry a balance on this card.

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Now, as we've discussed, you don't want to actually carry a balance on a travel card like this because the interest rates are astronomical.

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But this question is just an optional question for informational purposes and anecdotally, it seems like it may help you if you say you do often carry a balance on your credit card.

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Some people think this is because the bank is looking for customers that will help them make more money.

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We don't really know, but those are the best tips I can offer for getting approved Apply early in your TravelPoints journey, ideally apply when you don't have any other credit inquiries in the past six months, and also select that you will likely carry a balance, but, of course, don't actually carry a balance.

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Let's get into the card benefits.

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This card has an annual fee of $395 a year, so that's a bit hard to swallow when you're getting started with Travel Points and for some people you'll listen to this episode and realize it's not worth it for you despite all these benefits.

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And that's fine.

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That's what I hope most of all that you can listen to these podcast episodes and come out confident knowing whether a card is or isn't for you.

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If it isn't for you, you can move on to something else, but if it is for you, you'll know exactly how to extract all the value out of it Right off the bat.

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This card will give you a $300 annual travel credit each year, but it's not the easiest of travel credits to use travel credit each year, but it's not the easiest of travel credits to use.

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Because of this, I personally wouldn't value this at the full $300 that you get.

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To use this, you have to make a booking at Capital One Travel.

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You can use this $300 for flights or hotels or rental cars, and the way it works is that your VentureX account essentially has a $300 coupon preloaded for Capital One Travel.

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You don't have to use it all at once.

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You can, for instance, book a $150 hotel room and then a few months later book a car rental for $200.

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It would use up $150 for the hotel and then use up the rest on the car rental and you just pay that $50 that's left over.

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Now this is a card member year perk.

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That means you get to access it as soon as you sign up for the card and then every year it will reset on your card member anniversary, which is essentially when you get charged the annual fee again.

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Sometimes we find this really easy to use and sometimes we struggle more to use it.

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It just depends on our travel schedule for the year.

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We often use it for car rentals, but sometimes we use it to book hotels in smaller towns.

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Like this fall, we used it to book a hotel in Keokuk, iowa, where we went to collect geodes.

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If you don't follow me on Instagram, you probably did not see this, but it was a really fun trip and if hunting for geodes in creeks sounds fun to you, you should definitely look into Keokuk, iowa and the Geode Fest there.

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We had a blast and we came home with three five-gallon buckets of geodes which we got to crack open and the best option for booking a hotel in that town was just to use our VentureX travel credit.

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In addition to that $300 annual credit, you also get 10,000 miles every year on your account anniversary.

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So you don't get this the first year you have the card.

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It's just in the subsequent years when you're paying your annual fee again.

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The first year you can get a welcome offer so that you'll earn extra bonus miles that way.

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This is one of the very few cards that earns transferable points.

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That also gives you anniversary bonus points.

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Those 10,000 miles can be transferred to various travel partners.

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They can also just be used to give yourself a statement credit for any travel purchase that you've made.

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So at the very least this is worth $100 if you redeem it for travel credit.

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I was originally going to try to just do one comprehensive episode on the Venture X, but I think it's going to get a little bit too long and so I'm planning to split this into two episodes.

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So next week I'll go into some of the details on the best ways to use and earn Capital One miles.

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Last week we talked about lounge access and I mentioned how great of a card the Venture X is for airport lounge access.

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What makes it particularly great is that not only does the primary user get lounge access, but they can also add four authorized users who also get lounge access, and each person with lounge access.

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So it can be up to five people for a card all get to bring guests into lounges with them and those four authorized users are free to add.

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So it's really easy to get a whole family into a lounge or to share this lounge access benefit with a friend who you trust or extended family.

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Now, if you and your partner are both getting into credit cards, you may not want to automatically add them as an authorized user, because it sort of adds to their 524 count.

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If you need a review on 524, go back to season one.

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I have a whole episode on it.

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But if you're traveling as a family, one other option is to add your kids as authorized users, and I'll explain how that works.

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Now, some banks have a minimum age for adding an authorized user, but Capital One doesn't, which is why you can even add a baby.

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The VentureX gets you into three different lounge networks.

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The smallest is the Capital One lounges, but if you travel to an airport that has a Capital One lounge.

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These are really nice lounges.

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We frequent the one in Denver because that's where both my brother and sister live.

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One disadvantage is that, as these lounges have become more popular, you sometimes have to wait on a waiting list to get in.

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What Capital One doesn't make it super easy to find out is there's actually a way to get onto the waitlist virtually before you even arrive at the lounge, so you could get onto the waitlist as you're waiting in a security line or, if you have a layover.

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You can get on the waitlist as soon as your plane touches down or while you're walking off the plane.

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You will need the Capital One app to do this, and instead of showing it here, I'm going to link a video in the show notes that shows it step by step, because, frankly, it isn't exactly intuitive.

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When you arrive at a Capital One lounge, to get in you need to show your VentureX card and a boarding pass that matches the name on that card.

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You'll be able to get two guests in with you.

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So in our family I'm the primary user and my son, jerome, is an authorized user, so I can show my boarding pass and VentureX card and I can get in two guests along with me and then we show Jerome's VentureX card and his boarding pass and he could get in two more guests.

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Now we don't really call attention to the fact that Jerome is a minor and that it's really Jerome's card that we're using.

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There's no official rule I've been able to find on this, but usually what we do is my husband just hands over Jerome's boarding pass and VentureX card.

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With Plaza Premium Lounges, which is another network that the VentureX lets you access, it works very similarly.

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You show your VentureX card and matching boarding pass, so this will also work fine for a family if you've added your child as an authorized user.

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It's important to double check if there are Plaza Premium lounges where you're going, because these can be pretty nice too.

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The best resource is really just to Google Capital One Partner Lounges, which will take you to a page on Capital One's site that allows you to search by airport and it'll show you all the lounges in that Capital One all three of those networks.

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A lot of people forget to check for these and they miss the Plaza Premium ones specifically.

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The last network is the biggest and that's Priority Pass Lounges.

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If you listened to last week's episode, you'll understand that the Venture X only covers Priority Pass Lounges, not experiences and not restaurants, but what's nice is that this card gives you not just two, but unlimited guests at Priority Pass lounges.

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Now, this can still be subject to the lounge and they could turn extra guests away, but it's another great perk for big families.

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This is an odd thing where a lot of bloggers have been reporting that you only get two guests with Priority Pass lounges with this card, but really, when you look at the terms, it has no set limit, and I know I've tested it with three guests more than once and have never been charged extra.

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To get the Priority Pass membership, though, you need to use your VentureX card number to sign up for a Priority Pass membership, and you have to be 18 to get that Priority Pass membership.

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So if you added a child as the authorized user, what you can actually do here is use their VentureX card number to sign up another adult, likely your spouse or partner, but it could be a friend or a grandparent or an aunt and then that person becomes the one that has the Priority Pass access.

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I'm not going to try to put a value on the lounge access, because it varies so much with how much you travel and what airports you go through, but it's one thing that we love when we can use it.

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Another nice benefit on this card is a credit for $120 every four years for global entry or TSA pre-check.

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I compared these programs a few episodes ago and I love that this will give you a statement credit to cover either of them.

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So it's a great perk to know that you have and make sure that you're using.

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Another perk I like is I also really like that this card comes with a status upgrade with Hertz.

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So this one isn't automatic and you do have to sign up at a certain Hertz website to link your Hertz account with your VentureX card number, but when you do, you'll automatically get Hertz President Circle status.

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This benefit was initially slated to expire on December 31st 2024, but now appears to be extended indefinitely, which is great news.

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We use this a lot for car rentals in the US and what it gives you is that if you book a midsize category or higher at most US airports anyway, you'll get to choose from what's called the ultimate choice aisle when you arrive.

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So usually there's a lot of cars there and you can pick an upgraded car like an SUV or a convertible or a Tesla.

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We've always had good luck with getting something better than a midsize car that we had booked.

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Now I really don't recommend booking with Hertz outside of the US, as their franchises outside of the US often are somewhat notorious for extra fees and high-pressure insurance sales.

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We've had bad experiences in both Scotland and Cancun recently, but within the US we generally have a good experience.

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If you don't like booking with Hertz, you can also take that President's Circle status and ask other car rental companies to match it to a higher status with them.

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There are a few tricks to making sure you get your President's Circle status recognized and for also status matching it to other car rental companies, so I'm going to link an article in the show notes if you want to read more about either of those.

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In addition to these perks that can upgrade your travel experience the lounge access and the status and the TSA pre-check or global entry there are also a number of protections on this card for just everyday purchases.

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One of those is cell phone protection.

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The way this works is that you need to pay your cell bill with your credit card and just paying for the bill activates this benefit.

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Then, if your cell phone is stolen or damaged.

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You can get $800 or up to the value of your phone If it needs a repair.

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The coverage may just be for the repair.

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There is a $50 deductible for this, but that's pretty low compared to other cards with cell protection and it's still going to give you a big payout if you need it.

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Now the big frustration for this benefit for a lot of people is that now a lot of cell companies charge extra if you want to use a credit card to pay the bill.

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Some, like Verizon, don't seem to have any workaround.

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T-mobile still does have a workaround, which is what I currently use.

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So for me I have to have a debit card set as my automatic payment method and that will trigger the auto pay discount, which for us is $10 per line, I believe.

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So I have that set up for auto pay.

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But then every month I also have a reminder set to manually pay my bill early.

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And even if I pay my bill early with my credit card, I still retain my auto pay discount.

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But I've also triggered my insurance from the Capital One card.

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It is an extra step, but it means I'm getting my cell phone protected for free, so it's worth it for me.

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Now the wording on this coverage is a little bit vague when it comes to family plans, but generally does seem to cover all phones on the plan.

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We personally have made sure to use a card for this coverage where the cardholder name matches the username on the plan.

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We personally have made sure to use a card for this coverage where the cardholder name matches the username on the cell account.

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Just to be sure, if you're paying per month for cell protection and can pay your bill with a credit card without incurring a lot of extra fees, this can really save you a lot of money each year.

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My favorite, least known perk on this card is return protection.

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Return protection means that if you buy an item and aren't happy with it and the retailer won't take it back or they won't give you a refund or an exchange, you can still get reimbursed for that item.

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This is time limited, so it's within 90 days of purchase and there are some limitations, like you can't return holiday decor or live plants that died, but most things many things anyway are covered.

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So here are some times I've used this benefit.

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One was when I bought a few swimsuits for my daughter on final sale online and they turned out not to fit her.

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Because they were final sale, the store would not accept a return, but I was still able to get most of my money back.

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In this case, after I filed a claim, I was actually required to ship the items back to a certain address, so I think for me that the cost of the shipping was deducted from my final reimbursement, but I was still pretty happy to get anything back at all instead of just giving them to the thrift store.

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This can also help when you have stores with a short return window, like Amazon often only gives you 30 days to make a return, especially if you're like me and sometimes miss those shorter return windows.

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The terms even state it's applicable if the item is open.

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So if a store won't take it back because you opened it but you decide it isn't what you want, this still covers that too.

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The Venture X also has some benefits that are duplicated on my favorite beginner card, which I discussed more in detail in Season 1.

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I just wanted to mention that these benefits are on this card as well, in case you're wondering.

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Those include primary car rental insurance.

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So if you use the Venture X to pay for a rental car and you get into an accident, your personal car insurance rates won't be affected.

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It includes extended warranty of a year.

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So items that you buy that have a warranty, this extends that by a full year.

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We've used this on bigger purchases like an inflatable hot tub that sprung a leak, but also I just used this benefit on a pair of my son's shoes.

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I bought him some shoes that didn't even last a year and I was annoyed because he didn't even last a year and I was annoyed because he didn't even grow out of them, but the sole just totally wore through.

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I couldn't find a really clear warranty info sheet on the company's website, but I went back and forth with their customer support and they told me that they only had a 30-day warranty.

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So then I knew that my credit card gave me 30 days plus a full year with the extended warranty.

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So I filed a claim and uploaded a few files and photos to prove my case and a few weeks later I got a check in the mail for the full amount I had paid for the shoes.

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It was only $29, so it wasn't a huge amount of money.

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But if I didn't know about this benefit, I would not have that $29.

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And I would still be grumpy that I had this pair of shoes.

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I bought that the soles wore through after six months.

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All that to say, it can be used for small or large purchases.

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This card also has purchase security, which I've sometimes referred to as purchase protection.

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Purchase security covers you if you have a new item that you purchased in the past 90 days and it's stolen or damaged.

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The damaged part is really key here, because it is the worst feeling when you just bought something and you accidentally break it, but with this you're covered for the repair or the replacement.

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This card also has trip delay insurance, which is another great benefit, but just keep in mind it does not have baggage delay insurance, in case you check bags, and that's important to you.

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For more card benefit details on the other card, I typically recommend check out episodes eight to nine of season one.

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Both of those go deep into card benefits as well.

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With a VentureX card, you also have access to booking travel through Capital One Travel, and Capital One Travel has some unique perks.

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Now you'll likely be booking at least $300 of travel through Capital One Travel because you'll be trying to use up your $300 credit.

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Like I said, I usually do that for rental cars and one-off hotel stays.

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One disadvantage of booking with a third party like Capital One Travel is that if you have any hotel status with a particular chain, your benefits typically won't be applied.

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So we focus personally on getting higher status with Hyatt.

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We wouldn't book a Hyatt stay via Capital One Travel because then we wouldn't get our free breakfast and our free parking.

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But I don't mind booking this way for independent hotels or with chains that we don't need or use status perks at.

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This year we used it to book a hotel in Valladolid, mexico, as well as in Keokuk, iowa.

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You also do earn 10 points per dollar spent on hotels after you've redeemed your full credit if you book them through Capital One Travel, so sometimes that can really make sense with that earning rate.

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With flights, it's a little more complicated.

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Some people strongly prefer to book directly with an airline because it makes it more straightforward for any flight issues.

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When you book with a third party like Capital One Travel, you'll often have to deal directly with the third party instead of with the airline for any issues.

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Now, personally, I've had equally good and bad experiences with airline customer support and third party customer support, so personally I don't think it makes a huge difference.

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Some customer service agents are great and some are not that great, and it can go either way, and so for us, we just follow the deals.

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And as an added perk with Capital One Travel, it offers price drop guarantee on airfare.

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It's not unlimited, but it does offer it for a certain amount of time.

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So if your airfare drops in price, it actually gives you a travel credit for Capital One Travel to use in the future for whatever the fare difference is.

00:21:20.834 --> 00:21:25.234
This is automated and we got it once on a flight and it was such a nice surprise.

00:21:25.234 --> 00:21:29.932
There's also a price match guarantee you can use for hotels and car rentals.

00:21:29.932 --> 00:21:37.557
So if you find a lower price elsewhere after you've booked within 24 hours, you can submit it and you'll get a refund for the difference.

00:21:37.557 --> 00:21:43.941
Now the refund comes as a credit for Capital One Travel, so it's not totally flexible, but at least it exists.

00:21:43.941 --> 00:21:49.541
You can also choose through Capital One to buy extra protection for flights that you're booking.

00:21:49.541 --> 00:21:49.962
This way.

00:21:49.962 --> 00:21:53.981
That would allow you to change to any flight available if your flight is canceled.

00:21:53.981 --> 00:22:04.480
I purchased this once when I was buying a ticket for a friend and I really just wanted the peace of mind that if her flight was canceled, we could get her on any other flight that day going to her destination.

00:22:05.171 --> 00:22:11.679
I think it's important to weigh those various pluses of booking with Capital One Travel rather than just instantly write it off.

00:22:11.679 --> 00:22:21.019
There are a lot of bloggers and creators who just say, point blank, you should never book in a bank's travel portal, but I think that that's simplistic and somewhat naive.

00:22:21.019 --> 00:22:32.384
There are various reasons why you might want to book in a bank travel portal, but you just have to be aware that it won't help you earn hotel status and your customer service experience might be different.

00:22:32.384 --> 00:22:41.115
One more tiny perk I want to mention is that if you are near a Capital One cafe, if you have a VentureX card, you can get 50% off drinks.

00:22:41.115 --> 00:22:48.319
We don't use this frequently, but we do when we're in Chicago, as there's a Capital One Cafe down there in the theater district.

00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:56.400
So there's a Pete's Coffee inside the Capital One Cafe with a full drink menu and if you show your Capital One card, you get 50% off drinks.

00:22:57.070 --> 00:23:06.118
Next week I'll finish with part two on the VentureX card We'll go over how to maximize earning points with your card, as well as some sweet spots for spending your points.

00:23:06.118 --> 00:23:09.019
Before we go, I have a few action steps this week for you.

00:23:09.019 --> 00:23:15.655
If you have a VentureX, I suggest that you download my VentureX checklist, which is in the show notes below.

00:23:15.655 --> 00:23:22.553
That will help you go through and make sure you're signed up for all of these various card benefits and it'll remind you to do all of them.

00:23:22.553 --> 00:23:25.020
Make sure you're signed up for all of these various card benefits and it'll remind you to do all of them.

00:23:25.020 --> 00:23:36.778
You'll particularly want to be sure you're signed up for Priority Pass and Hertz President Circle, as those require you to manually sign up for them and the links are included in the checklist For everyone, even if you don't have a VentureX.

00:23:37.220 --> 00:23:44.502
Take a minute to make a plan about which card you're using for shopping benefits like purchase security and extended warranty protection.

00:23:44.502 --> 00:23:50.376
If you have a VentureX, it's a great one to use for this, because it also has return protection, which isn't as common.

00:23:50.376 --> 00:23:58.830
Get in the habit of using that card for purchases you expect to keep longer, or purchases you're unsure if you're going to keep in the first place.

00:23:58.830 --> 00:24:06.603
Now, this can be a bit tricky when you're working on a new card's minimum spend, but try to use the same card for these purchases as much as you can.

00:24:06.603 --> 00:24:08.855
If you have a VentureX also.

00:24:08.855 --> 00:24:14.775
Be sure to check out the video in the show notes about how to get on those waiting lists for Capital One lounges from your phone.

00:24:15.576 --> 00:24:23.843
I also wanted to ask a favor today, and that's if you're listening on a podcast platform where you can leave a review, will you take one minute today and leave one?

00:24:23.843 --> 00:24:30.083
Your reviews help more people find the podcast and that helps more people learn how to use Travel Points too.

00:24:30.083 --> 00:24:37.557
We passed 100,000 total downloads for the show a few weeks ago and I'm so grateful for everyone who's taking the time to listen.

00:24:37.557 --> 00:24:39.676
Thank you for trusting me with your time.

00:24:39.676 --> 00:24:49.394
Podcasting is a funny medium because I put my thoughts out there, but there's not a whole lot of feedback, so I don't always know how it's going when you take time to leave a review.

00:24:49.394 --> 00:24:52.321
It also, frankly, helps to encourage me to keep recording.

00:24:52.321 --> 00:24:54.477
Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

00:24:54.477 --> 00:24:59.951
I look forward to seeing you next time, where we will continue to keep unlocking these secrets of travel points together.

The Venture X Card: A Deep Dive into Perks and Benefits

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The Venture X Card: A Deep Dive into Perks and Benefits

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