Capital One Venture X Credit Card Review (2023.9 Update: 90k Offer)

2023.9 Update: There is a special link for 90k offer. HT: USCardForum tcelvis.

2022.6 Update: Capital One announced that access to Plaza Premium lounges are added to this card. Plaza Premium lounges used to belong to Priority Pass Select (PPS), but then they separated in 2021. Previously only AmEx Platinum card holders can get into Plaza Premium lounges, now Capital One Venture X holders can access it as well.

2022.3 Update: The 100k offer plus $200 vacation rental credit sign-up bonus is expired. The new offer is only 75k, and the good thing is the spending requirement is lower.

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Benefits

1. 90k offer: earn 90,000 Capital One miles after spending $4,000 in first 3 months. The recent best offer is 100k.
2. Earn unlimited 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel, plus unlimited 2x miles on all other purchases.
3. The overall value of Capital One Miles is 1.6 cent/point. See below for a brief introduction.
4. Get 10,000 bonus miles every year, starting on your first anniversary. No spending required.
5. $300 Annual Travel Credit (membership year): Receive up to $300 in statement credits when booking through Capital One Travel.
6. First 4 authorized user cards free.
7. Complimentary access to the following lounge collections (for both primary card holder and authorized users):
   • Capital One Lounges, 2 complementary guests.
   • Priority Pass Select (PPS) lounges, 2 complementary guests. Authorized users will get a separated PPS card.
   • Plaza Premium lounges, 2 complementary guests.
8. Herz President’s Circle membership (for both primary card holder and authorized users).
9. Up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck application fee.
10. Cell phone protection: get up to $800 per claim and 2 claims per year in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage for phones listed on your monthly cell phone bill when you pay it with your eligible credit card. Deductible $50.
11. No foreign transaction fee.

Disadvantages

1. $395 annual fee, NOT waived for the first year.
2. Capital One will pull all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax) for one credit card application!

Introduction to Capital One (C1) Miles

• You can earn C1 Miles with two kinds of cards: Miles earning cards, or cashback earninng cards. Miles earning cards mainly include: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Spark Miles for Business. Cashback earning cards mainly include: Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Spark Cash Plus etc.
• You can move your C1 Miles from one Miles earning card to another Miles earning card at any time, and you can also move your cashback from a cashback earning card to a Miles earning card at any time. However, you can not move your Miles from a Miles earning card to a cashback earning card, therefore cashback is more flexible than Miles in C1’s system.
• C1 Miles never expire. You will lose the C1 Miles on one card if you close the account, but you can prevent losing your C1 Miles by moving the points to another C1 card beforehand.
• If you have a Miles earning card, C1 Miles can be transferred to some airline miles and hotel points. Some good 1:1 transfer options are: Air Canada (AC) (Star Alliance), Avianca (AV) (Star Alliance), Asia Miles (CX) (Oneworld), British Airways (BA), and Wyndham hotel points, etc. If you use C1 Miles in this way, the value is about 1.6 cents/point.
• You can redeem your C1 Miles towards travel expense at a fixed ratio 1.0 cent/point. You can also redeem your C1 Miles towards some merchants gift cards at a fixed raiot 1.0 cent/point.
• You can redeem your C1 Miles towards statement credit at a fixed ratio 0.5 cents/point.
• In summary, we estimate that C1 Miles are worth about 1.6 cents/point.

Recommended Application Time

1. We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least two years and you are very comfortable with the credit card game.
2. [1/6 rule] You can only apply for 1 Capital One credit card for every 6 months, including both personal and business credit cards. You will get automatic denial if you violate this rule, but there will be no hard pull.

Summary

The welcome offer is nice. The spending rewards is similar to Capital One Venture but slightly improved.

The benefit for holding this card is good, the PPS card and Hertz President Circle membership are useful, especially considering you can get these benefits on the first 4 authorized user cards for free!

The annual fee is $395, but you get $300 travel credit and 10k anniversary bonus miles. The $300 travel credit requires to be booked via Capital One Portal, its flexibility is not as good as CSR or Citi Prestige, but it should be easy enough to use. The 10k miles are worth about $160. So basically this card pays for itself.

Capital One has improved its miles program over the years significantly, nowadays the transfer ratio is almost all 1:1, so it’s strong enough to compete with UR/MR/TYP/Marriott points system now.

Overall, this card is a good card, as long as you can get approved (which is hard) it’s a good card to have.

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