If travel is on your radar, you can maximize your spending with a good travel rewards credit card. For a limited time, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is offering a special sign-up bonus of $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first year. You’d also earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening, totaling up to $1,000 worth of travel rewards.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Learn More Rewards 5 Miles per dollar on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 2X miles per dollar on every other purchase
Welcome bonus Enjoy $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening – that’s equal to $1,000 in travel
Annual fee $95
Intro APR N/A for purchases and balance transfers
Regular APR 19.99% – 29.99% variable
Balance transfer fee $0 at the Transfer APR, 4% of the amount of each transferred balance that posts to your account at a promotional APR that Capital One may offer to you
Foreign transaction fee None
Credit needed Excellent/Good Terms apply.
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Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card new welcome bonus
The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card already offers a generous welcome bonus of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening. This alone gives you $750 worth of rewards when redeemed as a statement credit. And if you transfer these miles to one of Capital One’s travel partners, you can get even more value from this bonus. Now, new cardholders can also get a $250 travel credit (valid for one year) that can be used to book flights, hotels and vacation rentals, and rental cars on Capital One Travel. With these two bonuses combined, you could get up to $1,000 to spend on travel.
How to make the most out of this bonus
The $250 travel credit remains valid for one year after you get approved for the card, and you can only redeem it for travel purchases on the Capital One Travel portal. If you earn the 75,000-mile bonus, you can get creative by combining the two to make an expensive vacation much more affordable. For example, if you transfer those miles to Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles program you can fly from anywhere in the U.S. to Los Angeles on United for 20,000 miles round-trip in economy. And once you land in the City of Angels, your $250 travel credit can cover one night at the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel or help pay for renting a car for the weekend (in case you want the authentic Angeleno experience of being stuck in traffic). If you want to get out of the country, you can transfer your Capital One miles to airline partner Avianca LifeMiles for flights to Europe starting at 20,000 miles one-way in economy class or 63,000 miles in business class. Air France and KLM’s joint loyalty program, Flying Blue, is also a 1:1 Capital One transfer partner. You can book round-trip flights to Europe and take advantage of discounted prices through their Promo Rewards offers. No matter where you want to go, the Capital One Venture Rewards card makes a good companion. It earns 2X miles on all spending (excluding the 5X miles you earn through Capital One Travel purchases), doesn’t have any foreign transaction fees and gives you up to $100 statement credit for either Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.
Don’t have good credit? Check these cards out
One possible drawback of the Capital One Venture Rewards card is that you need good-to-excellent credit to qualify for it. If that’s not you but you’re still looking for a card to help build your credit, consider the Discover it® Secured Credit Card or the Choice Rewards World Mastercard®. Neither have the travel perks of the Capital One card, but both will help you get your finances in order so you can one day add a premium card to your wallet (if that’s what you want).
Discover it® Secured Credit Card Learn More On Discover’s secure site Rewards Earn 2% cash back at Gas Stations and Restaurants on up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter, automatically. Plus earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.
Welcome bonus Discover will match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year
Annual fee $0
Intro APR N/A on purchases
Regular APR 28.24% Variable
Balance transfer fee 3% intro balance transfer fee, up to 5% fee on future balance transfers (see terms)*
Foreign transaction fee None
Credit needed New / Rebuilding
*See rates and fees, terms apply. Read our Discover it® Secured Credit Card review.
Choice Rewards World Mastercard® Learn More On First Tech Federal Credit Union’s secure site Rewards Earn 2X points on groceries, gas, electronics, medical, household goods and telecommunications, 1X points on all other purchases
Welcome bonus Earn 20,000 points when you spend $3,000 in the first 60 days from account opening
Annual fee $0
Intro APR None
Regular APR 13.50% – 18.00% variable
Balance transfer fee None
Foreign transaction fee None
Credit needed N/A Terms apply.
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For rates and fees of the Discover it® Secured Credit Card, click here.
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