Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card review: The travel rewards card with no annual fee and special financing

On the heels of announcing brand new hotel transfer partners, Capital One is a top choice for those looking to book their next getaway weekend or a spring break retreat.

Capital One offers several travel rewards credit cards, but the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) makes the list of Select's top picks for travel credit cards without an annual fee because of its generous hotel rewards.

To make sure you're choosing the best no-annual-fee travel card for your needs, Select analyzed 12 popular options using an average American's spending annual budget and digging into each card's perks and drawbacks to find the best of the best based on your travel habits. (See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best cards.)

Below, we break down Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card's rewards, benefits and fees to help you decide if it's the right card for you.

• Rewards

• Additional benefits

• Fees

• Bottom line

Looking to book a hotel stay? You should consider the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card and its impressive offer of 5X miles per dollar on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

This no-annual-fee card (see rates and fees) also gives cardmembers an unlimited 1.25X miles on all other purchases, making it a solid choice for everyday use.

The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card offers new cardholders a strong welcome bonus: 20,000 miles once you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $200 in travel.

Cardholders can redeem their miles for cash in the form of a check or account credit, gift cards and more, though rates for these other redemption options vary. You can redeem miles for past travel expenses, which is essentially a statement credit, or you can book new travel reservations through the Capital One Rewards Center. Statement credit redemptions must be made within 90 days from the date your travel purchase posts to your account.

Additionally, with this card, it's possible to transfer your miles to any of Capital One's partner airline loyalty programs, including Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, and Aeroplan®.

Capital One cardholders can also redeem cash back and miles via Amazon.com. The company joins American Express, Chase, Citi and Discover to provide the convenient Shop with Points redemption option to cardholders. Cardholders will have the flexibility to use as many or as few rewards as they like on purchases at Amazon.com.

Select calculated how many rewards the average American can earn if they optimize the way they use their Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card. We worked with the location intelligence firm Esri, who provided us with a sample annual spending budget of $22,126.

The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953).

Here's how many miles you can earn with your Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card in each category, annually:

• Groceries: 6,468
• Gas: 2,772
• Dining out: 4,593
• Travel: 2,029
• Utilities: 6,077
• General purchases: 4,941
• Total: 29,985

Based on the annual spending budget from Esri, the average American can earn an estimated $300 in rewards the first year of card membership (including the miles earned from the welcome bonus) and an estimated $1,499 in rewards after five years with the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card.

This assumes that cardholders are redeeming miles for a typical maximum value of 1 cent per mile. Extreme optimizers might be able to achieve more value, and you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your spending habits. Your rewards don't expire as long as your account remains open.

Consumers with the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card can benefit from its many added perks, such as 24-hour travel assistance services, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, roadside assistance, auto rental collision damage waiver, purchase protection, extended warranty protection and exclusive access to premier culinary, music and sports events, such as the New York City Wine and Food Festival and the iHeartRadio Music Festival. *Terms, conditions and exclusions apply. Refer to your Guide to Benefits for more details.

Capital One also provides a credit score and report dashboard, CreditWise. It's free to use, and anyone can join — you don't need to have a Capital One account. With CreditWise, users can learn more about the key factors that impact their credit scores, get email alerts whenever their credit score changes and monitor their credit information.

Another perk of this card (besides its $0 annual fee) is the intro 0% APR period, which lasts for 15 months on new purchases. After that, the APR is 19.99% - 29.99% variable (see rates and fees). There are no foreign transaction fees (see rates and fees), either, which is a huge plus when traveling abroad. A 3% fee is charged on the amounts transferred within the first 15 months (4% at a promotional APR that Capital One may offer you at any other time).

The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card is a great choice for consumers who want to avoid an annual fee while taking advantage of travel rewards and special financing. Its flat-rate rewards program allows you to earn miles on all your purchases and it comes with a generous welcome bonus.

If you are looking to take advantage of a travel credit card with a higher rewards rate, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card offers a higher 2X miles per dollar on all spending, as well as the added perk of up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee every four years, which helps to offset its $95 annual fee. (See rates and fees).

To determine which cards will put the most money back in your pocket, Select evaluated popular credit cards offered by major banks, financial companies and credit unions that allow anyone to join. We compared each card on a range of features, including travel rewards (points and miles), annual fee, welcome bonus, introductory and standard APR, one-time perks, annual perks, redemption rates, as well as factors such as required credit and customer reviews when available.

Select teamed up with location intelligence firm Esri. The company's data development team provided the most up-to-date and comprehensive consumer spending data based on the 2019 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about their methodology here.

Esri's data team created a sample annual budget of approximately $22,126 in retail spending. The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953). General purchases include items such as housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, prescription drugs and vitamins, and other vehicle expenses.

We then estimated how much the average consumer would redeem over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee.

It's important to note the value of a point or mile varies from card to card and based on how you redeem them. When we calculated the estimated returns, we assumed that cardholders are redeeming points/miles for a typical maximum value of 1 cent per point or mile. (Extreme optimizers might be able to achieve more value.)

Our final picks are weighted heavily toward the highest five-year returns, since it's generally wise to hold onto a credit card for years. This method also avoids giving an unfair advantage to cards with large welcome bonuses.

Note: We didn't calculate the estimated rewards rate for college student credit cards because the focus should be on building good financial habits not optimizing points.

While the five-year estimates we've included are derived from a budget similar to the average American's spending, you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your travel habits.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.