Review: Capital One Venture X Business Card

Who is the Capital One Venture X Business card for?

If you’re interested in a simple miles-earning structure for your purchases, flexible travel redemption options that can be worth thousands of dollars in value, airport lounge access, and other perks, plus useful business benefits like no preset spending limit, you can’t go wrong with the Capital One Venture X Business.

Quick facts about the Capital One Venture X Business Card

‍Capital One Venture X Business Card Review

How to get a Capital One Venture X Business card

Any business owner can apply for the Capital One Venture X Business card, whether you have an LLC or corporation with employees or you’re a sole proprietor with a small side gig, like freelancing, business consulting, or selling items using online marketplaces.  

Not sure if what you do qualifies as a business? You may be surprised that you might.

You will need excellent credit to be approved. Capital One is known to be sensitive to inquiries and new accounts on your credit report, so you’ll likely want to space out the time between your last new card and applying for this card if it’s been recent.

If you don't qualify for the Venture X Business, Capital One may consider you for other business cards. Your credit will only be checked once, and you'll be able to accept or decline the offer for any other cards.

Earning miles with the Capital One Venture X Business card

If the thought of remembering to use different cards to maximize various purchase categories (like one card for flights, another for hotels, one for dining at restaurants, etc.) makes your head spin, the Venture X Business is likely perfect for you with its simple earning structure. Let’s go over more about how your everyday spending can earn you thousands of miles for travel.

• 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase
• 5 Miles per dollar on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
• 10 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

Redeeming miles with the Capital One Venture X Business card

Capital One offers several redemption options: transfers to airline and hotel programs, paying yourself back for travel purchases, and redeeming for cash back or gift cards. 

If you have any other Capital One cards, you can combine your rewards from those cards with the Venture X Business. You can also share miles with a friend or family member (and vice versa), as Capital One allows miles to be shared among cardholders.

Capital One transfer partners

Your best way to maximize your redemptions for outsized value will be to transfer them to airlines and hotels. The average value of your miles will typically be at least 2 cents per mile when redeemed this way. That means your welcome offer can be worth $3,000 or more in travel. 

You can transfer Capital One miles to these airline and hotel partners:

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• Accor Live Limitless
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Choice Privileges
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
• Finnair Plus
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• TAP Miles&Go
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Virgin Red
• Wyndham Rewards

Transfers are at a 1:1 ratio (1,000 Capital One mile equals 1,000 mile/point with the partner program) for almost all programs–the exceptions being Accor is at 2:1 and EVA Air is at 2:1.5. Sometimes there are temporary bonus promotions for additional miles when you transfer, giving you even more value. For example, Capital One has previously offered a 15% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles, making the transfer ratio 1:1.15.

With most transfers, the points or miles will be available instantly in the partner program, though your mileage may vary. In cases where a transfer is not instant, it is highly likely it will be complete within 24 hours.

Capital One Travel

The Venture X Business card comes with an annual $300 travel credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, the issuer's travel portal. It's best to do your research first and see if the price in the portal matches the price you'd find from the hotel or airline. 

After using this annual credit, it's best to save your points for transferring to partners because you'll get more value than if you were to redeem through the portal. 

Statement credit for travel

Another potentially good redemption option is paying yourself back for travel purchases. This can be useful for things like cruise bookings, hotels not available as part of the transfer partner programs, or even for theme park tickets as long as the purchase codes as travel. The downside to this option is your miles are only worth 1 cent apiece.

Other redemption options

The least favorable options are cash back and gift cards. You will receive less than 1 cent per mile in value with these options.

Welcome offer on the Capital One Venture X Business card

The current welcome offer can get you a wide variety of travel experiences. Here are some ideas of what you could do with it:

• You and your significant other can fly to Europe in business class for a total of 180,000 miles for both of you if you transfer your Capital One miles to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles. US to Europe (and back) award redemptions on Turkish Airlines price at 45,000 miles each way, per person.
• You may think you can’t book any domestic flights (travel solely within the US), since all of the partners are foreign airline programs. But that is not the case. You can utilize airline alliances to your benefit to book travel in the US. One standout example is British Airways Avios, which has a distance-based award chart. If American Airlines has low-level award space (formerly called Saver), those flights should be bookable with British Airways Avios. You can take your family of four to Hawaii from the West Coast for 26,000 Avios round-trip per person, or a total of 104,000 Avios. You could even take two Hawaii trips for that price!
• You can book a flight on an airline not available via the transfer partners through the Capital One Travel portal. Your miles will be worth 1 cent apiece this way, so 210,000 miles is $2,100. However, the better way to maximize your miles is to book flights through the portal and pay with your card to earn 5x miles. Then, you can redeem miles to pay yourself back for that purchase.

Additional benefits of the Capital One Venture X Business card

The benefits of the Venture X Business are very similar to benefits of the personal Capital One Venture X card. However, if you’re trying to remain under “5/24” (defined as opening less than five new cards in 24 months) in order to apply for credit cards from Chase, the Venture X Business will be beneficial to you because it does not report to the consumer credit bureaus. This is in contrast to other Capital One business cards that do report your activity.

Here are details on some of the top benefits included with the Venture X Business:

No preset spending limit

You do not have a set spending limit, so there is no worry about going over your limit as you make purchases with this card. Keep in mind that this does not mean you have unlimited spending available. The bank will determine the amount you can spend, and that amount can change over time based on factors such as your previous purchase behavior, payment history, and credit profile.

$300 annual travel credit

Each year, Venture X Business account holders will receive either a statement credit or portal credit for up to $300 in purchases made through Capital One Travel. You can book flights, hotels, or rental cars through the portal. It will be as a single credit if the purchase is greater than or equal to $300, or you can receive multiple credits until the total purchases are greater than or equal to $300. According to the card terms, the credit may apply at the time of purchase, or it will be posted to your account within one to two billing cycles. 

10,000 anniversary bonus miles

Cardholders receive 10,000 bonus miles every year, starting on the first anniversary.

Airport lounge access

You and two guests can enjoy unlimited visits to Capital One Lounges (currently located at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, and coming soon to Denver), plus more than 1,300 partner lounges through Priority Pass and Plaza Premium. The Venture X Business card’s Priority Pass membership also includes access to non-lounge airport offerings, such as restaurants and spas. Non-lounge offerings from Priority Pass are something the personal Venture X card no longer includes, so you’ll come out ahead here by having the business card.

What are the drawbacks of the Capital One Venture X Business card?

Business owners who use credit cards to aid in cash flow and pay down their balance over time may consider the requirement to pay in full each month as a disadvantage to the Venture X Business. If you do not pay your balance in full, there’s a 2.99% late fee on your outstanding late balance, and your account will be considered past due. 

While Capital One generally does not report your activity to the consumer credit bureaus for this card, they may do so if your account becomes delinquent. The card does not have an annual percentage rate (APR), so there is no possibility to pay interest charges in order to pay your balance over time. If you are unable to pay your bill in full each month, this card may not be right for you at the present time.

Another big drawback for some may be the minimum spending requirement in order to earn the welcome offer. While some business owners who need to purchase business equipment, order products for inventory, or pay significant income taxes will have no trouble with this requirement, those without a lot of business expenses may struggle. It is not advised to overspend just to earn the welcome offer, especially since this is a pay-in-full card.

Alternatives to the Capital One Venture X Business card

Not sure if this is the card for you? Fortunately, you've got options.

Capital One Venture X Business vs. personal Capital One Venture X card

Capital One Venture X Business vs. Capital One Spark Miles for Business

Capital One Venture X Business vs. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express